English

Grain Boundary Scars on Spherical Crystals

Soft Condensed Matter 2007-05-23 v3 Materials Science

Abstract

We present an experimental system suitable for producing spherical crystals and for observing the distribution of lattice defects (disclinations and dislocations) on a significant fraction (50%) of the sphere. The introduction of fluorescently labeled particles enables us to determine the location and orientation of grain boundary scars. We find that the total number of scars and the number of excess dislocations per scar agree with theoretical predictions and that the geometrical centers of the scars are roughly positioned at the vertices of an icosahedron.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0506741,
  title  = {Grain Boundary Scars on Spherical Crystals},
  author = {Thomas Einert and Peter Lipowsky and Jorg Schilling and Mark J. Bowick and Andreas Bausch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0506741},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

12 pages, 4 Figs, pdf format (typo in title fixed). Revised for greater clarity