On The Surface Energy Of Elemental Metals Using The Stabilized Jellium Model

Abstract

The surface energy of elemental metals was calculated using the stabilized jellium approach. The surface energy of the (111), (100) and (110) faces of the face centred cubic (fcc) and body centred cubic (bcc) metals was also calculated. The calculated surface energy of metals was compared with experimental values and the variation of the calculated and experimental surface energy of metals with electron gas parameter was studied. The surface energy of metals calculated based on the kinetic, electrostatic, exchange-correlation, and pseudopotential components were higher than experimental values. The surface energy calculated without taking the different components into consideration was in perfect agreement with experimental values in the low-density regim. But in the high-density limit, there were discrepancies between the calculated surface energies and experimental values. The discrepancies increased towards the high-density limit. The calculated face dependent surface energy of bcc metals reveal that the (111) face has the highest surface energy while the (110) face has the least surface energy. But for the fcc metals the (110) face has the highest surface energy while the (111) face has the least surface energy.

Keywords: Metals, surface energy, stabilized jellium model, electron density parameter

Nigerian Journal of Physics Vol. 19 (1) 2007: pp. 9-16