Kinetic coefficient for hard-sphere crystal growth from the melt.

Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we determine the magnitude and anisotropy of the kinetic coefficient (mu) for the crystal growth from the melt for the hard-sphere system through an analysis of equilibrium capillary fluctuations in interfacial height. We find mu100 = 1.44(7), mu110 = 1.10(5), and mu111 = 0.64(3) in units of square root (kB/(mTm)), where kB is Boltzmann's constant, m is the particle mass, and Tm is the melting temperature. These values are shown to be consistent, with some exceptions, with those obtained in recent simulation results a variety of fcc metals, when expressed in hard-sphere units. This suggests that the kinetic coefficient for fcc metals can be roughly estimated from C square root (R/(MTm)), where R is the gas constant, M is the molar mass, and C is a constant that varies with interfacial orientation.