Related papers: Interstitial Fractionalization and Spherical Cryst…
Elucidating the interplay of defect and stress at the microscopic level is a fundamental physical problem that has strong connection with materials science. Here, based on the two-dimensional crystal model, we show that the instability mode…
Whereas disclination defects are energetically prohibitive in two-dimensional flat crystals, their existence is necessary in crystals with spherical topology, such as viral capsids, colloidosomes or fullerenes. Such a geometrical…
We study the structural features and underlying principles of multi-dislocation ground states of a crystalline spherical cap. In the continuum limit where the ratio of crystal size to lattice spacing $W/a$ diverges, dislocations proliferate…
Mesoscale objects with unusual structural features may serve as the analogues of atoms in the design of larger-scale materials with novel optical, electronic or mechanical behaviour. In this paper we investigate the structural features and…
Point defects are ubiquitous in two dimensional crystals and play a fundamental role in determining their mechanical and thermodynamical properties. When crystals are formed on a curved background, finite length grain boundaries (scars) are…
Ordered states on spheres require a minimum number of topological defects. For the case of crystalline order, triangular lattices must be interrupted by an array of at least 12 five-fold disclination defects, typically sitting at the…
The original Thomson problem of "spherical crystallography" seeks the ground state of electron shells interacting via the Coulomb potential; however one can also study crystalline ground states of particles interacting with other…
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…
Understanding the out-of equilibrium behaviour of point defects in crystals, yields insights into the nature and fragility of the ordered state, as well as being of great practical importance. In some rare cases defects are spontaneously…
We study the relationship between topological defect formation and ground-state packings in a model of repulsions in external confining potentials. Specifically we consider screened 2D Coulombic repulsions, which conveniently parameterizes…
A system of $n$ screw dislocations in an isotropic crystal undergoing antiplane shear is studied in the framework of linear elasticity. Imposing a suitable boundary condition for the strain, namely requesting the non-vanishing of its…
I present an overview of the hierarchy of structures existing in the interstellar medium (ISM) and the possible mechanisms that cause the fragmentation of one level into the next, with the formation of stars as its last step. Within this…
We propose and analyze an effective free energy describing the physics of disclination defects in particle arrays constrained to move on an arbitrary two-dimensional surface. At finite temperature the physics of interacting disclinations is…
Networks of particles connected by springs model many condensed-matter systems, from colloids interacting with a short-range potential, to complex fluids near jamming, to self-assembled lattices, to origami-inspired materials. Under small…
We study the deformation of a fluctuating crystalline sheet confined between two flat rigid walls as a simple model for layered solids where bonds among atoms {\it within} the same layer are much stronger than those {\it between} layers.…
Crystallographic defects play a key role in determining the properties of crystalline materials. The new class of two-dimensional materials, foremost graphene, have enabled atomically resolved studies of defects, such as vacancies, grain…
Vacancy swelling of quasicrystals under irradiation is considered. In quasicrystals, the evolution of dislocations is accompanied by the formation of phasons which are localized topological defects of the vacancy and interstitial types. At…
A detailed analytical and numerical analysis for the dislocation cloud surrounding a disclination is presented. The analytical results show that the combined system behaves as a single disclination with an effective fractional charge which…
Smectic liquid crystals are charcterized by layers that have a preferred uniform spacing and vanishing curvature in their ground state. Dislocations in the smectics play an important role in phase nucleation, layer reorientation, and…
Using numerical and analytical calculations we study the structure of vacancies and interstitials in two-dimensional colloidal crystals. In particular, we compare the displacement fields of the defect obtained numerically with the…