Structural relaxation in Morse clusters: Energy landscapes

It is found that the landscape becomes rougher and less steep as the range of the potential decreases, and that relaxation paths to the global minimum become more complex.

Abstract

We perform a comprehensive survey of the potential energy landscapes of 13-atom Morse clusters, and describe how they can be characterized and visualized. Our aim is to detail how the global features of the funnel-like surface change with the range of the potential, and to relate these changes to the dynamics of structural relaxation. We find that the landscape becomes rougher and less steep as the range of the potential decreases, and that relaxation paths to the global minimum become more complex.