Calculation of the surface energy of fee metals with modified embedded-atom method

The surface energies for 38 surfaces of fcc metals Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pd, Pt, Al, Pb, Rh and Ir have been calculated by using the modified embedded-atom method. The results show that, for Cu, Ag, Ni, Al, Pb and Ir, the average values of the surface energies are very close to the polycrystalline experimental data. For all fee metals, as predicted, the close-packed (111) surface has the lowest surface energy. The surface energies for the other surfaces increase linearly with increasing angle between the surfaces (hkl) and (111). This can be used to estimate the relative values of the surface energy.