A new mechanism of structural transition in 2D Hertzian spheres in the presence of random pinning

Abstract

Using molecular dynamics simulation we have investigated the influence of random pinning on the phase diagram and melting scenarios of a two-dimensional (2D) system with the Hertz potential for $\alpha =5/2$. For the first time it has been shown that random pinning can cardinally change the mechanism of first-order transition between the different crystalline phases (triangular and square) by virtue of generating hexatic and tetratic phases: a triangular crystal to hexatic transition is of the continuous Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type, a hexatic to tetratic transition is of the first-order, and finally, a continuous BKT type transition from tetratic to the square crystal.

12 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (12)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Square ice in graphene nanocapillaries
• 2D Melting: From Liquid-Hexatic Coexistence to Continuous Transitions
• Self-Assembly of Monatomic Complex Crystals and Quasicrystals with a Double-Well Interaction Potential
• Phase diagram of Hertzian spheres
• Effect of a potential softness on the solid-liquid transition in a two-dimensional core-softened potential system
• Muon-spin rotation measurements of the vortex state in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$: type-1.5 superconductivity, vortex clustering and a crossover from a triangular to a square vortex lattice
• Structural behavior and dynamics of an anomalous fluid between solvophilic and solvophobic walls: templating, molding and superdiffusion
• Dimensionality and design of isotropic interactions that stabilize honeycomb, square, simple cubic, and diamond lattices
• From bcc to fcc: interplay between oscillating long-range and repulsive short-range forces
• Sequential Phase Transitions and Transient Structured Fluctuations in Two-Dimensional Systems with a High-Density Kagome Lattice Phase
• Structural behavior of a two length scale core-softened fluid in two dimensions

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The role of attraction in the phase diagrams and melting scenarios of generalized 2D Lennard-Jones systems
• Topological Order in an Antiferomagnetic Tetratic
• Theory of Generalized Hertzian Hyperspheres