Applications of Genetic Algorithms in cluster optimisation

Applications of Genetic Algorithms For optimisation of atomic clusters are reported. It is shown that the genetic algorithms are very useful tools for determining the minimum energy structures of clusters of atoms described by interatomic potential functions containing up to a few hundred atoms. The algorithm generally outperforms other optimisation methods for this task. A number of applications are given including covalent carbon and silicon clusters, close-packed structures such as argon and silver and the two-component C-H system.