Structural trends in clusters of quadrupolar spheres
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-13 v1 Materials Science
Abstract
The influence of quadrupolar interactions on the structure of small clusters is investigated by adding a point quadrupole of variable strength to the Lennard-Jones potential. Competition arises between sheet-like arrangements of the particles, favoured by the quadrupoles, and compact structures, favoured by the isotropic Lennard-Jones attraction. Putative global potential energy minima are obtained for clusters of up to 25 particles using the basin-hopping algorithm. A number of structural motifs and growth sequences emerge, including star-like structures, tubes, shells and sheets. The results are discussed in the context of colloidal self-assembly.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.2579,
title = {Structural trends in clusters of quadrupolar spheres},
author = {Mark A. Miller and James J. Shepherd and David J. Wales},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.2579},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 6 figures