Vacancy formation and squashing during surface melting and the size effect on surface-induced melting of metals.

On the basis of a vacancy-squashing model for melting that we developed recently, a vacancy formed in the premelting liquid-like-layer is proposed to be squashed at the instance of its formation, which will significantly facilitate vacancy formation. Accordingly, the temperature for surface-induced melting and its size dependence are quantitatively calculated. By comparing the calculated data with the reported experimental results for metals, we show that the present approach may potentially predict the size-dependent melting point of other metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]