Surface energy of arbitrary crystal plane of bcc and fcc metals Original Research Article

Surface energies (γ) of arbitrary orientation crystal planes of several metals are calculated with the broken-bond model. The bonds of the nearest neighbor and second neighbor are considered, and the ratio (ρ) of the second neighbor bond energy to the nearest bond energy is calculated, ρ of bcc metals being larger than that of fcc metals. The relations are: (1) γ(111)<γ(100)<γ(110) for fcc metals; (2) γ(110)<γ(111)⩽γ(110) for bcc metals when ρ⩽0.366 and (3) γ(110)<γ(100)<γ(111) when ρ>0.366 for bcc metals. Angular distributions of surface energies for eight metals are shown. The calculated results of γ agree well with results obtained by previous authors with other methods.