Dynamics and thermodynamics of nanoclusters

Abstract

The dynamic and thermodynamic properties of nanoclusters are studied in two different environments: the canonical and microcanonical ensembles. A comparison is made to thermodynamic properties of the bulk. It is shown that consistent and reproducible results on nanoclusters can only be obtained in the canonical ensemble. Nanoclusters in the microcanonical ensemble are trapped systems, and inconsistencies will be found if thermodynamic formalism is applied. An analytical model is given for the energy dependence of the phase space volume of nanoclusters, which allows the prediction of both dynamical and thermodynamical properties.