Related papers: An atomic perspective on the serpentine-chlorite s…
We study the dynamics of small fluctuations about the uniform state of a crystal moving through a dissipative medium, e.g. a sedimenting colloidal crystal or a moving flux lattice, using a set of continuum equations for the displacement…
Infinite-layer nickelates stand as a promising frontier in the exploration of unconventional superconductivity. Their synthesis through topotactic oxygen reduction from the parent perovskite phase remains a complex and elusive process. This…
Na-montmorillonite is a natural clay mineral and is available in abundance in nature. The aqueous dispersions of charged and anisotropic platelets of this mineral exhibit non-ergodic kinetically arrested states ranging from soft glassy…
The average structure of the solid solution LaMn$_{1-x}$Ga$_x$O$_3$ (LMGO) has been investigated from a symmetry-motivated approach utilizing synchrotron x-ray and neutron powder diffraction techniques. We show experimentally that a…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
The transitions in disordered substances are discussed briefly: liquid--liquid phase transitions, liquid--glass transition and the transformations of one amorphous form to another amorphous form of the same substances. A description of…
Charged colloids can form ordered structures like Wigner crystals or glasses at very low concentrations due to long-range electrostatic repulsions. Here, we combine small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and optical experiments with…
The ubiquitous phenomena of crystallization and melting occur in various geophysical contexts across many spatial and temporal scales. In particular, they take place in the iron core of terrestrial planets and moons, profoundly influencing…
When subjected to large amplitude oscillatory shear stress, aqueous Laponite suspensions show an abrupt solidification transition after a long delay time tc. We measure the dependence of tc on stress amplitude, frequency, and on the…
We have studied the shock-induced phase transition from fullerite to a dense amorphous carbon phase by tight-binding molecular dynamics. For increasing hydrostatic pressures P, the C60-cages are found to polymerise at P<10 GPa, to break at…
Materials which can undergo slow diffusive transformations as well as fast displacive transformations are studied using the phase-field method. The model captures the essential features of the time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams,…
Using a modified Lennard-Jones model for elliptic particles and spherical impurities, we present results of molecular dynamics simulation in two dimensions. In one-component systems of elliptic particles, we find an orientation phase…
Targeting specific technological applications requires the control of nanoparticle properties, especially the crystalline polymorph. Freezing a nanodroplet deposited on a solid substrate leads to the formation of crystalline structures. We…
Atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to gain atomic-scale insights into the heteroepitaxy of lanthanum-strontium manganite (LSMO, La$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_{3-{\delta}}$, $x$…
Ultrasoft colloids typically do not spontaneously crystallize, but rather vitrify, at high concentrations. Combining in-situ rheo-SANS experiments and numerical simulations we show that shear facilitates crystallization of colloidal star…
The competition between external drives and interparticle interactions are important for the static and dynamic properties of topological quasiparticles in confined geometries. Here, we study the dynamics of particlelike skyrmions under a…
Deterministic control of the layering configuration of two-dimensional quantum materials plays a central role in studying their emergent electronic properties. Here we demonstrate in-situ control over competing stacking configurations in…
Labyrinthine patterns arise in two-dimensional physical systems submitted to competing interactions, ranging from the fields of solid-state physics to hydrodynamics. For systems of interacting particles, labyrinthine and stripe phases were…
We present a new type of phase-change behavior relevant for information storage applications, that can be observed in 2D systems with cluster-forming ability. The temperature-based control of the ordering in 2D particle systems depends on…
Shock metamorphism in ordinary chondrites allows for reconstructing impact events between asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Shock-darkening of ordinary chondrites occurs at the onset of complete shock melting of the rock (>70 GPa) or…