Related papers: Predictive orientational phase behavior in convex …
Evidence of a special chiral nematic phase is provided using numerical simulation and Onsager theory for systems of hard helical particles. This phase appears at the high density end of the nematic phase, when helices are well aligned, and…
In recent years, experimental and theoretical investigations have shown that anisotropic colloids can self-organise into ordered porous monolayers, where the interplay of localised bonding sites, so called patches, with the particle's shape…
Understanding crystal growth and morphology is a fundamental issue in condensed matter physics. While crystal morphology due to the distribution and dynamics of the diffusion field has been intensively studied, how the intrinsic material…
In this paper we present a classical Monte Carlo simulation of the orthorhombic phase of crystalline polyethylene, using an explicit atom force field with unconstrained bond lengths and angles and periodic boundary conditions. We used a…
In addition to electronic polarization or charge redistribution, the shape of neutral conjugated molecules yields position-dependent ionization potentials and electron affinities in organic thin films. Self-consistent I(n) and A(n) are…
Throughout the physical sciences, entropy stands out as a pivotal but enigmatic concept that, in materials design, often takes a backseat to energy. Here, we demonstrate how to precisely engineer entropy to achieve desired colloidal…
We use computer simulations to study the phase behaviour for hard, right rhombic prisms as a function of the angle of their rhombic face (the "slant" angle). More specifically, using a combination of event-driven molecular dynamics…
Using particle-resolved molecular-dynamics simulations, we compute the phase diagram for soft repulsive spherocylinders confined on the surface of a sphere. While crystal (K), smectic (Sm), and isotropic (I) phases exhibit a stability…
Many biological and synthetic materials self-assemble into helical or twisted aggregates. The shape is determined by a complex interplay between elastic forces and the orientation and chirality of the constituent molecules. We study this…
We numerically investigate two-dimensional systems of hard rectangles at constant pressure through extensive hard-particle Monte Carlo simulations. We determine the complete phase diagram as a function of packing fraction and aspect ratio,…
We model the quasicrystal-related structure CaCd$_6$, a bcc packing of icosahedral clusters containing tetrahedra which undergo orientational orderings at T<100 K. We use general schemes to evaluate an effective Hamltonian for…
We have recently devised organizing principles to obtain maximally dense packings of the Platonic and Archimedean solids, and certain smoothly-shaped convex nonspherical particles [Torquato and Jiao, Phys. Rev. E 81, 041310 (2010)]. Here we…
Unlike atoms, colloidal particles are not identical, but can only be synthesised within a finite size tolerance. Colloids are therefore polydisperse, i.e. mixtures of infinitely many components with sizes drawn from a continuous…
A physics-based analytical model describing the phase transition from crystalline to conformationally disordered (condis) crystalline phase is developed. In the model, the free energy is written as a function of temperature and the lattice…
This study examines the motion of spherical inertial particles in a three-dimensional rotating cylindrical vortex - a simplified model of geophysical flow structures such as oceanic eddies. The analytical vortex formulation enables the…
Self-assembly of nanoparticles can enable composites with pre-designed properties but remains challenged by reproducing structural diversity of atomic and molecular crystals. We combine anisotropic elastic and weakly screened electrostatic…
We examine the symmetry-breaking effect of fixed constellations of particles on the surface-directed spinodal decomposition of binary blends in the presence of particles whose surfaces have a preferential affinity for one of the components.…
By equilibrating condensed DNA arrays against reservoirs of known osmotic stress and examining them with several structural probes, it has been possible to achieve a detailed thermodynamic and structural characterization of the change…
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…
Ellipsoidal particles confined at liquid interfaces exhibit complex self-assembly behaviour due to quadrupolar capillary interactions induced by meniscus deformation. These interactions cause particles to attract each other in either…