Tuesday, April 9, 2013

1304.2252 (A. J. Archer et al.)

Formation of quasicrystals and other exotic crystal structures in a
soft-core fluid: a tale of two length scales
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A. J. Archer, A. M. Rucklidge, E. Knobloch
A two-dimensional system of soft particles interacting via a two-length-scale potential is studied. Density functional theory reveals the existence of a fluid phase and two crystalline phases with different lattice spacing. Of these the larger lattice spacing crystalline phase takes the form of a `crystal liquid' state with a small fraction of mobile particles. Near the transition between this phase and the smaller lattice spacing crystalline phase, quasicrystalline structures may be created by a competition between linear instability at one scale and nonlinear selection of the other. The results are confirmed using Brownian dynamics simulations.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.2252

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