A gold-silicon potential fitted to the binary phase diagram

Abstract

We develop an empirical interatomic potential model for the gold-silicon binary system that is fitted to the experimental phase diagram. The model is constructed on the basis of the modified embedded-atom-method formalism and its binary phase diagram is computed by efficient free energy methods. The eutectic temperature and eutectic composition of the model match well with the experimental values. We expect the model to be useful for atomistic simulations of gold-catalyzed growth of silicon nanowires.