Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2007-07-13
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 9, 6304 (2007)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
21 pages, 9 figures
Scientific paper
10.1039/b710773k
Finding the ground states of identical particles packed on spheres has relevance for stabilizing emulsions and a venerable history in the literature of theoretical physics and mathematics. Theory and experiment have confirmed that defects such as disclinations and dislocations are an intrinsic part of the ground state. Here we discuss the remarkable behavior of vacancies and interstitials in spherical crystals. The strain fields of isolated disclinations forced in by the spherical topology literally rip interstitials and vacancies apart, typically into dislocation fragments that combine with the disclinations to create small grain boundary scars. The fractionation is often into three charge-neutral dislocations, although dislocation pairs can be created as well. We use a powerful, freely available computer program to explore interstitial fractionalization in some detail, for a variety of power law pair potentials. We investigate the dependence on initial conditions and the final state energies, and compare the position dependence of interstitial energies with the predictions of continuum elastic theory on the sphere. The theory predicts that, before fragmentation, interstitials are repelled from 5-fold disclinations and vacancies are attracted. We also use vacancies and interstitials to study low energy states in the vicinity of "magic numbers" that accommodate regular icosadeltahedral tessellations.
Bowick Mark J.
Nelson David R.
Shin Homin
No associations
LandOfFree
Interstitial Fractionalization and Spherical Crystallography does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Interstitial Fractionalization and Spherical Crystallography, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Interstitial Fractionalization and Spherical Crystallography will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-59985