Surface molecular dynamics simulation with two orthogonal surface steps: how to beat the particle conservation problem

Due to particle conservation, canonical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations fail in the description of surface phase transitions involving coverage or lateral density changes. However, a step on the surface can act effectively as a source or a sink of atoms, in the simulation as well as in real life. A single surface step can be introduced by suitably modifying planar periodic boundary conditions, to accommodate the generally inequivalent stacking of two adjacent layers. We discuss here how, through the introduction of two orthogonal surface steps, particle number conservation may no longer represent a fatal constraint for the study of these surface transitions. As an example, we apply the method for estimating temperature-induced lateral density increase of the reconstructed Au(0 0 1) surface; the resulting anisotropic cell change is consistent with experimental observations. Moreover, we implement this kind of scheme in conjunction with the variable curvature MD method, recently introduced by our group.