Related papers: Entropy driven formation of complex crystals in so…
A systematic search for multicomponent crystal structures is carried out for five different ternary systems of nuclei in a polarizable background of electrons, representative of accreted neutron star crusts and some white dwarfs. Candidate…
Charged (nano)particles confined in electrodynamic traps can evolve into strongly correlated Coulomb systems which are the subject of current investigation. Exciting physical phenomena associated to Coulomb systems are reported such as…
We study the phase behaviour of a binary mixture of colloidal hard spheres and freely-jointed chains of beads using Monte Carlo simulations. Recently Panagiotopoulos and coworkers predicted [Nat. Commun. 5, 4472 (2014)] that the hexagonal…
This paper reports formation enthalpies of phases in the Al-Mn-Pd ternary alloy system as calculated from first principles using electronic density functional theory. We consider all crystal structures as reported in the assessed phase…
We performed an extensive first-principles study of nanowires in various pentagonal structures by using pseudopotential plane wave method within the density functional theory. Our results show that nanowires of different types of elements,…
Discrete degrees of freedom, such as spin and orbital, can provide intriguing strategies to manipulate electrons, photons, and phonons. With a spin degree of freedom, topological insulators have stimulated intense interests in…
The aggregation of binary colloids of same size and balanced charges is studied by Brownian dynamics simulations for dilute suspensions. It is shown that, under appropriate conditions, the formation of colloidal crystals is dominated by…
We consider spin systems between a finite number $N$ of "species" or "phases" partitioning a cubic lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$. We suppose that interactions between points of the same phase are coercive, while between point of different phases…
We introduce structural heterogeneity, a new topological characteristic for semi-ordered materials that captures their degree of organisation at a mesoscopic level and tracks their time-evolution, ultimately detecting the order-disorder…
Polymer-coated pores play a crucial role in nucleo-cytoplasmic transport and in a number of biomimetic and nanotechnological applications. Here we present Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory approaches to identify different collective…
We study in experiment and with computer simulation the free energy and the kinetics of vacancy and interstitial defects in two-dimensional dipolar crystals. The defects appear in different local topologies which we characterize by their…
A first principle prediction of the binary nanoparticle phase diagram assembled by solvent evaporation has eluded theoretical approaches. In this paper, we show that a binary system interacting through Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential contains…
We study the nucleation of crystalline cluster phases in the generalized exponential model with exponent n=4. Due to the finite value of this pair potential for zero separation, at high densities the system forms cluster crystals with…
Metastable phases may be spontaneously formed from other metastable phases through nucleation. Here we demonstrate the spontaneous formation of a metastable phase from an unstable equilibrium by spinodal decomposition, which leads to a…
The assembly of colloidal cubic diamond is a challenging process since the shape and interaction parameters and the thermodynamic conditions where this structure is stable are elusive. The simultaneous use of shape-anisotropic particles and…
Nucleation and growth (N&G) - the emergence of a new phase within an initially homogeneous one - is one of the most important physical phenomena by which gas-liquid, liquid-liquid and solid-liquid phase separation takes place. Accordingly,…
The relative stability of two-dimensional soft quasicrystals is examined using a recently developed projection method which provides a unified numerical framework to compute the free energy of periodic crystal and quasicrystals. Accurate…
The depletion interaction mediated by non-adsorbing polymers promotes condensation and assembly of repulsive colloidal particles into diverse higher-order structures and materials. One example, with particularly rich emergent behaviors, is…
Colloidal crystals are used to understand fundamentals of atomic rearrangements in condensed matter and build complex metamaterials with unique functionalities. Simulations predict a multitude of self-assembled crystal structures from…
Particle-stabilised emulsions are a cornerstone of soft matter science due to their broad application and fundamental relevance. Computer simulations provide key insights into the formation and behaviour of these emulsions, yet current…