Anisotropy in structural phase transitions at ice surfaces: a molecular dynamics study

Molecular dynamics simulations of ice surfaces at temperatures below the melting point were carried out. As a result, thin liquid-like layers (that is, quasi-liquid layers, QLL) were detected on both ice{0001}- and ice{10View the MathML source0}-faces. We emphasize that the anisotropy in the QLL thickness obtained in this MD simulations qualitatively coincides with that obtained by the experiment.