Efficient moves for global geometry optimization methods and their application to binary systems

Abstract: We show that molecular dynamics based moves in the Minima Hopping (MH) method are more efficient than saddle point crossing moves which select the lowest possible saddle point. For binary systems we incorporate identity exchange moves in a way that allows to avoid the generation of high energy configurations. Using this modified Minima Hopping method we reexamine the binary Lennard Jones (BLJ) benchmark system with up to 100 atoms and we find a large number of new putative global minima structures.