HEAT CAPACITY OF 13-AND 19-ATOM PD-CO BINARY CLUSTERS: PARALLEL TEMPERING MONTE CARLO STUDY

Abstract

Alloy nanoclusters are of interest because of their novel properties compared to bulk alloys. In this study, the thermal behavior of 13- and 19-atom Pd-Co binary clusters has been investigated by parallel tempering Monte Carlo technique using the Sutton-Chen many body potential. Clear changes in heat capacity curve are observed as a function of Pd-Co composition. We also found that, the 13-atom cluster melts in two stages and 19-atom cluster melts as a whole.