April 28 2004


Global bond order parameters of Mackay Icosahedra

Ideal Mackay Icosahedra have been constructed with the numbers of atoms listed below (with a central atom).

Number of layers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Number of atoms 13 55 147 309 561 923 1415 2057 2869 3871 5083


The global bond order parameters have been computed for the Mackay Icosahedra with and without the central atom.

With the central atom

Without the central atom


The shells of the Mackay icosahedron with 5083 atoms have been distinguished out one by one. Their 2D bond order parameters have been computed.


From the above we know that the 3D bond order parameters for icosahedra with and without the central atom are almost the same when N>300. We conlude the 3D bond order parameters for the bulk and the 2D bond order parameters for the surface of Mackay icosahedra are:

Geometry Q4 Q6 W4 W6
Bulk 0 0.199608 +/-0.159317 -0.169754
Surface 0 0.207289 +/-0.159317 0.169754