Related papers: A short-range metastable defect in the double laye…
A key to understand how electrons behave in crystalline solids is the band structure that connects the energy of electron waves to their wavenumber (k). Even in the phase of matter with only short-range order (liquid or amorphous solid),…
This paper investigates the discretization of a periodic metasurface and demonstrates how such a surface can achieve perfect anomalous reflection. Whilst most contemporary theoretical works on metasurfaces deal with continuous current or…
Whereas exceptional mechanical and radiation performances have been found in the emergent medium- and high-entropy alloys (MEAs and HEAs), the importance of their complex atomic environment, reflecting diversity in atomic size and…
The alkali halides, known as ionic crystals, have the NaCl-type or CsCl-type structure as the ground state. We study the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) ionic crystals from first-principles. Two…
Colloidal particles are often seen as big atoms that can be directly observed in real space. They are therefore playing an increasingly important role as model systems to study processes of interest in condensed matter physics such as…
Photo-excited quantum materials can be driven into thermally inaccessible metastable states that exhibit structural, charge, spin, topological and superconducting orders. Metastable states typically emerge on timescales set by the intrinsic…
We report results of MD simulations of amorphous ice in the pressure range 0 - 22.5 kbar. The high-density amorphous ice (HDA) prepared by compression of Ih ice at T = 80 K is annealed to T = 170 K at intermediate pressures in order to…
A new phase of ice, named ice XV, has been identified and its structure determined by neutron diffraction. Ice XV is the hydrogen-ordered counterpart of ice VI and is thermodynamically stable at temperatures below ~130 K in the 0.8 to 1.5…
We consider a phenomenological continuum theory for an extensile, overdamped active nematic liquid crystal, applicable in the dense regime. Constructed from general principles, the theory is universal, with parameters independent of any…
We study in-gap electronic states induced by a nonmagnetic defect with short-range potential in two-dimensional topological insulators and trace their evolution as the distance between the defect and the boundary changes. The defect located…
In this work, we provide mechanistic insight into the initial stages of formation of ice across the limit of stability of supercooled water. Such an analysis is particularly important since crystal nucleation is not a relevant mechanism…
Using Kohn-Sham wave functions and their energy levels obtained by density-functional-theory total-energy calculations, the electronic structure of the two c(2x2) phases of Na on Al(001) are analysed; namely, the metastable hollow-site…
Disclinations, first observed in mesomorphic phases, are relevant to a number of ill-ordered condensed matter media, with continuous symmetries or frustrated order. They also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries. They are…
We use a disordered anti-ferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain with anisotropic exchange coupling to model an array of interacting qubits. All qubits have the same level spacing, except two, which are called the defects of the chain. The level…
We consider an isolated point defect embedded in a homogeneous crystalline solid. We show that, in the harmonic approximation, a periodic supercell approximation of the formation free energy as well as of the transition rate between two…
The structural evolution of suspensions upon freezing is studied with optical microscopy in a suspended droplet configuration. Droplets have millimeter size and consist in an aqueous mixture of silica particles while the surroundings phase…
Understanding the structural tendencies of nanoconfined water is of great interest for nanoscience and biology, where nano/micro-sized objects may be separated by very few layers of water. Here we investigate the properties of ice confined…
We present a multiscale atomistic-to-continuum method for ionic crystals with defects. Defects often play a central role in ionic and electronic solids, not only to limit reliability, but more importantly to enable the functionalities that…
We study a one dimensional metastable dynamics of internal interfaces for the initial boundary value problem for the following convection-reaction-diffusion equation \begin{equation*} \partial_t u = \varepsilon \partial_x^2 u -\partial_x…
Topological point defects on orientationally ordered spheres, and on deformable fluid vesicles have been partly motivated by their potential applications in creating super-atoms with directional bonds through functionalization of the…