On the solid-fluid interface of adhesive spheres

The adhesive-sphere interaction potential provides a good model system to study the influence of the attractive well depth on phase behavior and interfacial phenomena. We investigate the solid-fluid phase behavior of adhesive spheres with the modified weighted density approximation (MWDA) of Denton and Ashcroft. We then apply a planar-averaged density functional approach (PWDA) to determine interfacial properties. We find both a narrowing of the interface between fluid and coexisting fcc solid and an increase in the interfacial energy with increasing attractive interaction strength in accord with the empirical relation γ ≈ 0.47ΔHρ. In addition, we investigate metastable solid nucleation through calculation of metastable bcc solid-fluid interfacial tensions and find results suggesting the possibility of such a route to stable solid formation. © 1993 American Institute of Physics.