Structural phase transition of anisotropic particles and formation of orientation-strain glass with addition of impurities

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore how anisotropic particles undergo structural phase transitions and form orientation-strain glass when impurities are added, revealing complex phase behaviors and disorder effects.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Lennard-Jones model for anisotropic particles and demonstrates how impurities influence phase transitions and glass formation in two-dimensional systems.

Findings

Crystallization and phase transitions observed in one-component systems.

Impurities lead to domain division and glass formation.

Increasing impurity size enhances disorder and translational disruption.

Abstract

Using a modified Lennard-Jones model for anisotropic particles, we present results of molecular dynamics simulation in two dimensions. In one-component systems, we find crystallization, a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase, and a structural phase transition, as the temperatures is lowered. In the lowest temperature range, the crystal is composed of three martensitic variants on a hexagonal lattice, exhibiting the shape memory effect. With addition of larger spherical particles (impurities), these domains are finely divided, yielding glass with slow time evolution. With increasing the impurity size, the structural or translational disorder is also proliferated.