Entropic Stabilization of Tunable Planar Modulated Superstructures

Abstract

Self-assembling novel ordered structures with nanoparticles has recently received much attention. Here we use computer simulations to study a two-dimensional model system characterized by a simple isotropic interaction that could be realized with building blocks on the nanoscale. We find that the particles arrange themselves into hexagonal superstructures of twin boundaries whose superlattice vector can be tuned reversibly by changing the temperature. Thermodynamic stability is confirmed by calculating the free energy with a combination of thermodynamic integration and the Frenkel-Ladd method. Different contributions to the free energy difference are discussed.

4 pages, 5 figures plus 7 pages of supplementary figures

References in corpus (3)

• Disordered, Quasicrystalline and Crystalline Phases of Densely Packed Tetrahedra
• Self-Assembly of Monatomic Complex Crystals and Quasicrystals with a Double-Well Interaction Potential
• Dynamics of particle flips in two-dimensional quasicrystals

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Self Assembly of Soft Matter Quasicrystals and Their Approximants
• Controlled self-assembly of periodic and aperiodic cluster crystals
• Phase Diagram of Hard Tetrahedra
• Computing phase diagrams for a quasicrystal-forming patchy-particle system
• Confirmation of the random tiling hypothesis for a decagonal quasicrystal
• Aperiodic approximants bridging quasicrystals and modulated structures
• Atomistic mechanisms of dynamics in a two-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystal
• Defects Enhance Stability in 12-fold Symmetric Soft-Matter Quasicrystals
• Tuning the Stability of a Model Quasicrystal and its Approximants with a Periodic Substrate