Role of Layering Oscillations at Liquid Metal Surfaces in Bulk Recrystallization and Surface Melting

TL;DR

This paper investigates how layering oscillations at liquid metal surfaces influence bulk recrystallization and surface melting, revealing that the interaction's nature depends on the alignment of layering effects with crystal spacing.

Contribution

It demonstrates that layering oscillations significantly affect melting behavior and recrystallization, with molecular dynamics simulations providing direct evidence of this mechanism.

Findings

Layering effects depend on the alignment with crystal interplanar spacing.

The sign of the interaction influences surface melting behavior.

Simulations confirm the role of layering oscillations in orientational dependence.

Abstract

The contrasting melting behavior of different surface orientations in metals can be explained in terms of a repulsive or attractive effective interaction between the solid-liquid and the liquid-vapor interface. We show how a crucial part of this interaction originates from the layering effects near the liquid metal surface. Its sign depends on the relative tuning of layering oscillations to the crystal interplanar spacing, thus explaining the orientational dependence. Molecular dynamics recrystallization simulations of Au surfaces provide direct and quantitative evidence of this phenomenon.