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We consider consequences of local disorder in systems experiencing first order phase transitions. Such systems can be of rather different nature. For example, manganates showing gigantic magnetoelectric effect, doped antiferroelectrics or…
We introduce the theoretical framework we use to study the bewildering variety of phases in condensed--matter physics. We emphasize the importance of the breaking of symmetries, and develop the idea of an order parameter through several…
In liquid crystal elastomers, the orientational order of liquid crystals is coupled with elastic distortions of crosslinked polymer networks. Previous theoretical research has described these materials through two different approaches: a…
We describe a general method to model multicomponent ordered crystals using the phase-field crystal (PFC) formalism. As a test case, a generic B2 compound is investigated. We are able to produce a line of either first-order or second-order…
There are at least three fundamental states of matter, depending upon temperature and pressure: gas, liquid, and solid (crystal). These states are separated by first-order phase transitions between them. In both gas and liquid phases the…
Spatially uniform electric fields have been used to induce instabilities in liquids and polymers, and to orient and deform ordered phases of block-copolymers. Here we discuss the demixing phase transition occurring in liquid mixtures when…
We experimentally investigate the structural behavior of an interacting colloidal monolayer being driven across a decagonal quasiperiodic potential landscape created by an optical interference pattern. When the direction of the driving…
The kinetics of order-disorder transition of FePt nanoparticles during high temperature annealing is theoretically investigated. A model is developed to address the influence of large surface to volume ratio of nanoparticles on both the…
We analyze the crystal orientation-dependent polarization state of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) high-order harmonics from bulk magnesium oxide crystals subjected to intense linearly polarized laser fields. We find that only along high-symmetry…
Statistical theory of the dielectric susceptibility of polar liquid crystals is proposed. The molecules are not uniaxial but similar to cones. It is assumed that the permanent dipole moment of a molecule is parallel to the axis of the…
Monodisperse suspensions of Brownian colloidal spheres crystallize at high densities, and ordering under shear has been observed at densities below the crystallization threshold. We perform large-scale simulations of a model suspension…
The effects of an aperiodic order or a random disorder on phase transitions in statistical mechanics are discussed. A heuristic relevance criterion based on scaling arguments as well as specific results for Ising models with random disorder…
We consider a phenomenological continuum model for an active nematic fluid and show a universal, model independent, instability which renders the homogeneous nematic state unstable to order fluctuations. Using numerical and analytic tools…
Nematic liquid crystals confined to geometrically as well as chemically patterned substrate on one end and a flat substrate with strong anchoring on the other is studied using non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo methods. We observe significant…
Nematic liquid crystals have been known for more than a century, but it was not until the 60s-70s that, with the development of room temperature nematics, they became widely used in applications. Polar nematic phases have been long-time…
The interplay of nematic order and phase separation in solutions of semiflexible polymers in solvents of variable quality is investigated by density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We studied coarse-grained…
We investigated the relative stability of the amorphous vs crystalline nanoparticles of size ranging between 0.8 and 1.8 nm. We found that, at variance from bulk systems, at low T small nanoparticles are amorphous and they undergo to an…
We study numerically the coarsening dynamics of the Ising model on a regular lattice with random bonds and on deterministic fractal substrates. We propose a unifying interpretation of the phase-ordering processes based on two classes of…
The ordering kinetics of standing cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly (methyl methacrylate) block copolymers (molecular weight: 39 kg/mol) close to the order-disorder transition is experimentally investigated following the temporal…
We study the order-disorder transition of horizontally swirled dry and wet granular disks by means of computer simulations. Our systematic investigation of the local order formation as a function of amplitude and period of the external…