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Order-disorder transitions take place in many physical systems, but observing them in detail in real materials is difficult. In two- or quasi-two-dimensional systems, the transition has been studied by computer simulations and…
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…
Analytical relationships for the surface and curvature energies of oblate and prolate semi-spheroidal atomic clusters have been obtained. By modifying the cluster shape from a spheroid to a semi-spheroid the most stable shape was changed…
The alkaline-earth orthovanadate Sr$_3$V$_2$O$_8$ with the palmierite structure is reported to host a dielectric anomaly as well as a structural phase transition above the room temperature. With V$^{5+}$ ions and tetrahedral oxygen…
We present theory and simulation of simultaneous chemical demixing and phase ordering in a polymer-liquid crystal mixture in conditions where isotropic-isotropic phase separation is metastable with respect to isotropic-nematic phase…
Interactions between organic species and natural minerals are fundamental to the processes around us. With the aid of molecular dynamics simulations, we identify key adsorption mechanisms of apigenin on smectite clay minerals. The mechanism…
Topotactic transformations between related crystal structures are a powerful emerging route for the synthesis of novel quantum materials. Whereas most such "soft chemistry" experiments have been carried out on polycrystalline powders or…
Despite the fundamental importance of solid-solid transformations in many technologies, the microscopic mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we explore the atomistic mechanisms at the migrating interface during solid-solid phase…
We study the evolution from a liquid to a crystal phase in two-dimensional curved space. At early times, while crystal seeds grow preferentially in regions of low curvature, the lattice frustration produced in regions with high curvature is…
In order to probe the mechanism of solid-solid phase transformations, we have applied ultrafast shock wave compression (120 picosecond duration) and ultrashort (130 femtosecond) x-ray diffraction at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to…
We report the observation of the transition from an ordered solid-like phase to a disordered liquid-like phase of a lattice of spikes on a ferrofluid surface submitted to horizontal sinusoidal vibrations. The melting transition occurs for a…
Simultaneous rheological and velocity profile measurements are performed in a smooth Couette geometry on Laponite suspensions seeded with glass microspheres and undergoing the shear-induced solid-to-fluid (or yielding) transition. Under…
Using continuum based simulations we show that a rich variety of skyrmion liquid crystal states can be realized in the presence of a periodic obstacle array. As a function of the number of skyrmions per obstacle we find hexagonal, square,…
In this paper we investigate glass transition in aqueous suspension of synthetic hectorite clay, laponite. We believe that upon dispersing laponite clay in water, system comprises of clusters (agglomerates) of laponite dispersed in the…
The traditional picture of solid-solid phase transformations assumes an ordered parent phase transforms into an ordered daughter phase via a single unique pathway. Zirconium and its prototypical phase transition from hexagonal close-packed…
Kuiper belt objects are thought to be formed at least a few million years after the formation of calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions, at a time when the $^{26}$Al isotope -- the major source of radiogenic heat in the early Solar System -- had…
Finding new collective electronic states in materials is one of the fundamental goals of condensed matter physics. Atomic-scale superlattices formed from transition metal oxides are a particularly appealing hunting ground for new physics.…
The origin of successive phase transitions observed in the layered perovskite $\alpha$-Sr$_2$CrO$_4$ is studied by the density-functional-theory-based electronic structure calculation and mean-field analysis of the proposed low-energy…
We carry out molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation to investigate the effect of cementite size and temperature on the deformation behavior of nanocomposite pearlite composed of alternating ferrite and cementite layers. We find…
Halide perovskites have attracted increasing research attention regarding their outstanding optoelectronic applications. Owing to its low activation energy, ion migration is implicated in the long-term stability and many unusual transport…