0000000000035857
AUTHOR
A. Ricci
Elastic properties, structures and phase transitions in model colloids
The nature of the melting transition for a system of hard discs with translational degrees of freedom in two spatial dimensions has been analysed by a combination of computer simulation methods and a finite size scaling technique. The behaviour of the system is consistent with the predictions of the Kosterlitz–Thouless–Halperin–Nelson–Young (KTHNY) theory. The structural and elastic properties of binary colloidal mixtures in two and three spatial dimensions are discussed as well as those of colloidal systems with quenched point impurities. Hard and soft discs in external periodic (light-) fields show rich phase diagrams including freezing and melting transitions when the density of the syst…
Confined Crystals on Substrates: Order and Fluctuations in Between One and Two Dimensions
The effect of lateral confinement on a crystal of point particles in d = 2 dimensions in a strip geometry is studied by Monte Carlo simulations and using phe- nomenological theoretical concepts. Physically, such systems confined in long strips of width D can be realized via colloidal particles at the air-water interface, or by adsorbed monolayers at suitably nanopatterned substrates, etc. As a generic model, we choose a repulsive interparticle potential decaying with the twelfth inverse power of distance. This system has been well studied in the bulk as a model for two- dimensional melting. The state of the system is found to depend very sensitively on the boundary conditions providing the …
Numerical investigations of complex nano-systems
The nature of the melting transition for a system of hard disks with translational degrees of freedom in two spatial dimensions has been analysed by a combination of computer simulation methods and a finite size scaling technique. The behaviour of the system is consistent with the predictions of the Kosterlitz–Thouless–Halperin–Nelson–Young (KTHNY) theory. The structural and elastic properties of binary colloidal mixtures in two and three spatial dimensions are discussed as well as those of colloidal systems with quenched point impurities. Hard and soft disks in external periodic (light) fields show rich phase diagrams, including freezing and melting transitions when the density of the syst…
Ordering of two-dimensional crystals confined in strips of finite width.
Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the effect of confinement on a crystal of point particles interacting with an inverse power law potential $\ensuremath{\propto}{r}^{\ensuremath{-}12}$ in $d=2$ dimensions. This system can describe colloidal particles at the air-water interface, a model system for experimental study of two-dimensional melting. It is shown that the state of the system (a strip of width $D$) depends very sensitively on the precise boundary conditions at the two ``walls'' providing the confinement. If one uses a corrugated boundary commensurate with the order of the bulk triangular crystalline structure, both orientational order and positional order is enhanced, and suc…
Field-induced ordering phenomena and non-local elastic compliance in two-dimensional colloidal crystals
Ordering phenomena in colloidal dispersions exposed to external one-dimensional, periodic fields or under confinement are studied systematically by Monte Carlo computer simulations. Such systems are useful models for the study of monolayers on a substrate. We find that the interaction with a substrate potential completely changes the miscibility of a binary, hard disc mixture at low external field amplitudes. The underlying ordering mechanisms leading to this laser-induced de-mixing differ, depending on which components interact with the substrate potential. Generic effects of confinement on crystalline order in two dimensions are studied in a model system of point particles interacting via…
Two-dimensional model colloids and nano wires: phase transitions, effects of external potentials and quantum effects
Abstract Quantum effects, structures and phase transitions in Nano-systems have been analyzed. An overview is given on the results of our computations on structural and elastic properties of model colloids, on phase transitions of model colloids in external fields, and on structural and electronic properties of stretched atomic wires.
Lack of long-range order in confined two-dimensional model colloidal crystals.
We investigate the nature of the ordered phase for a model of colloidal particles confined within a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) strip between two parallel boundaries, or walls, separated a distance $D$ in two dimensions (2D). Using Monte Carlo simulations we find that at densities typical of the bulk 2D triangular solid the order in the D1D strip is determined by the nature of the boundaries. While the order is enhanced for a suitably corrugated boundary potential, for a uniformly repulsive smooth boundary potential ordering normal to the walls is enhanced (``layering''), but destroyed parallel to the wall.