Structural Transitions, Melting, and Intermediate Phases for Stripe and Clump Forming Systems

TL;DR

This study investigates phase transitions in a 2D particle system with competing interactions, revealing complex melting behaviors and intermediate liquid-like phases within structured patterns like stripes and clumps.

Contribution

It introduces new measures to characterize phase transitions considering multiple length scales and details the temperature-dependent melting processes in stripe, clump, and anticlump phases.

Findings

Identification of multiple phase transitions with temperature and density.

Discovery of an intermediate liquid-like phase within stripe structures.

Observation of anisotropic diffusion and structural breakdown at high temperatures.

Abstract

We numerically examine the properties of a two-dimensional system of particles which have competing long range repulsive and short range attractive interactions as a function of density and temperature. For increasing density, there are well defined transitions between a low density clump phase, an intermediate stripe phase, an anticlump phase, and a high density uniform phase. To characterize the transitions between these phases we propose several measures which take into account the different length scales in the system. For increasing temperature, we find an intermediate phase that is liquid-like on the short length scale of interparticle spacing but solid-like on the larger length scale of the clump, stripe, or anticlump pattern. This intermediate phase persists over the widest temperature range in the stripe state when the local particle lattice within an individual stripe melts well below the temperature at which the entire stripe structure breaks down, and is characterized by intra-stripe diffusion of particles without inter-stripe diffusion. This is followed at higher temperatures by the onset of inter-stripe diffusion in an anisotropic diffusion phase, and then by breakup of the stripe structure. We identify the transitions between these regimes through diffusion, specific heat, and energy fluctuation measurements, and find that within the intra-stripe liquid regime, the excess entropy goes into disordering the particle arrangements within the stripe rather than affecting the stripe structure itself. The clump and anticlump phases also show multiple temperature-induced diffusive regimes which are not as pronounced as those of the stripe phase.