Formation of a crystalline monolayer at the surface of an absorbed liquid n-heptadecane film above the bulk solidification temperature, with the molecules in the layer hexagonally packed and their axes tilted by ∼25° from the surface normal, is found using molecular-dynamics simulations, corroborating recent observations. A crystallized adsorbed thin film (∼40 Å) of hexadecane is found to consist of four layers of molecules oriented parallel to the substrate and a topmost hexagonally packed layer with molecules oriented toward the normal.

• Received 22 March 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.48.11313