0000000000173769
AUTHOR
Surajit Sengupta
showing 16 related works from this author
The Observation of Formation and Annihilation of Solitons and Standing Strain Wave Superstructures in a Two-Dimensional Colloidal Crystal
2008
Confining a colloidal crystal within a long narrow channel produced by two parallel walls can be used to impose a meso-scale superstructure of a predominantly mechanical elastic character [Chui et al., EPL 2008, 83, 58004]. When the crystal is compressed in the direction perpendicular to the walls, we obtain a structural transition when the number of rows of particles parallel to the walls decreases by one. All the particles of this vanishing row are distributed throughout the crystal. If the confining walls are structured (say with a corrugation along the length of the walls), then these extra particles are distributed neither uniformly nor randomly; rather, defect structures are created a…
The liquid-solid transition of hard discs: first-order transition or Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young scenario?
2002
We consider the question of whether a two-dimensional hard-disc fluid has a first-order transition from the liquid state to the solid state as in the three-dimensional melting-crystallization transition or whether one has two subsequent continuous transitions, from the liquid to the hexatic phase and then to the solid phase, as proposed by Kosterlitz, Thouless, Halperin, Nelson and Young (KTHNY). Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the fluid that study the growth of the bond orientational correlation length, and of the crystal are discussed. The emphasis is on a recent consistency test of the KTHNY renormalization group (RG) scenario, where MC simulations are used to estimate the bare elastic c…
Quantum effects and orientational ordering in adsorbed layers of linear molecules
1994
We study the influence of quantum fluctuations on the herringbone transition in adsorbed complete √3-mono-layers of diatomic molecules. Using Path-Integral Monte Carlo simulations for rotations, we can quantify the shift of the transition temperature for a highly realistic model to describe N2 on graphite. In addition, the zero-point motion of the librating molecules depresses the ground-state order parameter. We compare the benchmark data to quadratic Feynman-Hibbs effective potential simulations and to a quasiharmonic approximation. Using a simplified model for this transition, we study systematically quantum effects being relevant for lighter molecules. Depending on the rotator's rotatio…
Confined Crystals on Substrates: Order and Fluctuations in Between One and Two Dimensions
2010
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
2005
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.
2007
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…
Elastic moduli, dislocation core energy and melting of hard disks in two dimensions
2000
Elastic moduli and dislocation core energy of the triangular solid of hard disks of diameter $\sigma$ are obtained in the limit of vanishing dislocation- antidislocation pair density, from Monte Carlo simulations which incorporates a constraint, namely that all moves altering the local connectivity away from that of the ideal triangular lattice are rejected. In this limit, we show that the solid is stable against all other fluctuations at least upto densities as low as $\rho \sigma^2 = 0.88$. Our system does not show any phase transition so diverging correlation lengths leading to finite size effects and slow relaxations do not exist. The dislocation pair formation probability is estimated …
Elastic constants from microscopic strain fluctuations
1999
Fluctuations of the instantaneous local Lagrangian strain $\epsilon_{ij}(\bf{r},t)$, measured with respect to a static ``reference'' lattice, are used to obtain accurate estimates of the elastic constants of model solids from atomistic computer simulations. The measured strains are systematically coarse- grained by averaging them within subsystems (of size $L_b$) of a system (of total size $L$) in the canonical ensemble. Using a simple finite size scaling theory we predict the behaviour of the fluctuations $$ as a function of $L_b/L$ and extract elastic constants of the system {\em in the thermodynamic limit} at nonzero temperature. Our method is simple to implement, efficient and general e…
Phase diagram of a model anticlustering binary mixture in two dimensions: A semi-grand-canonical Monte Carlo study
1994
The temperature-density phase diagram of a model binary mixture in two dimensions is investigated using a semi-grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulation scheme which allows for exchange between the two species while keeping the total number of atoms fixed. The gas-liquid and the gas-solid regions of the phase diagram are mapped out using the efficient block analysis method incorporating finite-size scaling of the various coexisting densities. An ordered square lattice structure is seen to be stable at low temperatures. Interesting short-range ordering phenomena resulting in a ``disorder line'' in the fluid phase are also analyzed and compared with results from liquid-state integral equation th…
On the order of the herringbone transition of N2 on graphite: a Monte Carlo study
1993
Using the anisotropic planar-rotor model we investigate the herringbone phase transition of N2 in the (√3 × √3)R30° commensurate phase on graphite by large scale Monte Carlo simulations. The effective correlation length ξ is measured near the transition temperature T0. The data, extrapolated to T0, yield a large but finite ξ at T0 demonstrating that the herringb ordering is a weak first order transition.
Soliton staircases and standing strain waves in confined colloidal crystals
2009
We show by computer simulation of a two-dimensional crystal confined by corrugated walls that confinement can be used to impose a controllable mesoscopic superstructure of predominantly mechanical elastic character. Due to an interplay of the particle density of the system and the width D of the confining channel, "soliton staircases" can be created along both parallel confining boundaries, that give rise to standing strain waves in the entire crystal. The periodicity of these waves is of the same order as D. This mechanism should be useful for structure formation in the self-assembly of various nanoscopic materials.
N2monolayers physisorbed on graphite: the herringbone transition revisited
1994
Monte Carlo simulations were undertaken of the orientational herringbone phase transition of N2 adsorbed on graphite in the complete monolayer (✓3 × ✓3) R30° structure. The non-universal aspects (c...
Field-induced ordering phenomena and non-local elastic compliance in two-dimensional colloidal crystals
2008
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…
Lack of long-range order in confined two-dimensional model colloidal crystals.
2006
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.
Monte Carlo investigation of head-tail ordering of CO monolayers on graphite
1994
Abstract Heat capacity measurements recently showed that CO physisorbed on graphite undergoes a head-tail ordering transition at roughly 5 K. The present paper is a detailed Monte Carlo study of this phase transition and the ordered state. The simulations are based on an ab initio pair potential and rely crucially on a thorough finite-size scaling study of various quantities. In agreement with experiments we find that the transition belongs to the universality class of the Ising model in two dimensions. We go beyond experimental knowledge by revealing the particular ferrielectric structure of the ground state, and show that the transition is due to the molecule's shape asymmetry rather than…
Langevin dynamics simulations of a two-dimensional colloidal crystal under confinement and shear
2012
Langevin dynamics simulations are used to study the effect of shear on a two-dimensional colloidal crystal (with implicit solvent) confined by structured parallel walls. When walls are sheared very slowly, only two or three crystalline layers next to the walls move along with them, while the inner layers of the crystal are only slightly tilted. At higher shear velocities, this inner part of the crystal breaks into several pieces with different orientations. The velocity profile across the slit is reminiscent of shear banding in flowing soft materials, where liquid and solid regions coexist; the difference, however, is that in the latter case the solid regions are glassy while here they are …