Size dependent thermal vibrations and melting in nanocrystals

Abstract

A simple model for the size-dependent amplitude of the atomic thermal vibrations of a nanocrystal is presented which leads to the development of a model for the size dependent melting temperature in nanocrystals on the basis of Lindemann's criterion. The two models are in terms of a directly measurable parameter for the corresponding bulk crystal, i.e., the ratio between the amplitude of thermal vibrations for surface atoms and that for interior ones. It is shown that the present model for the melting temperature offers not only a qualitative but even an excellent quantitative agreement with the experimentally observed size-dependent superheating, as well as melting point suppression in both the supported and embedded metallic and semiconductor nanocrystals.