SURFACE MELTING PHENOMENA MODELING OF DIFFERENT CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC PLANES, LAYER BY LAYER FOR COPPER

In this research, in order to study the surface melting phenomena of metals for different crystallographic planes, we present a thermodynamic model on the example of copper. This model includes interfacial energies of thin layers of solid with gas, surface of melted layers with gas and interface between solid and liquid of metals. Moreover, the effect of surface energy of different planes, number of layers and crystallographic orientation of metallic layers on melting transformation was considered. Therefore, by applying the effect of energy and orientation of surface layers on the variation of Gibbs free energy value of solid phase (thin films) and molten metal, surface melting point for solid thin films has been evaluated. Furthermore the effect of surface energies of (100), (110) and (111) planes has been investigated. The results of our calculations show good agreement with experimental results and other theoretical predictions in literature. By using this model we are also able to calculate and analyze the melting phenomena of metallic thin films layer by layer from some nm scale up to thick (bulk metallic) cases