Non-classical nucleation pathways in stacking-disordered crystals

TL;DR

This paper reveals that layered and onion-like non-classical nucleation structures can form purely from structural fluctuations without free-energy differences, using neural network analysis of competing crystalline structures.

Contribution

It introduces a new structural order parameter and neural network method to study early-stage nucleation and non-classical structures in crystal formation.

Findings

Small nuclei exhibit distinct size fluctuations and compositions.

Onion-like structures form during the transition from initial to growth stages.

Non-classical structures can emerge solely from structural fluctuations, independent of free-energy differences.

Abstract

The nucleation of crystals from the liquid melt is often characterized by a competition between different crystalline structures or polymorphs, and can result in nuclei with heterogeneous compositions. These mixed-phase nuclei can display nontrivial spatial arrangements, such as layered and onion-like structures, whose composition varies according to the radial distance, and which so far have been explained on the basis of bulk and surface free-energy differences between the competing phases. Here we extend the generality of these non-classical nucleation processes, showing that layered and onion-like structures can emerge solely based on structural fluctuations even in absence of free-energy differences. We consider two examples of competing crystalline structures, hcp and fcc forming in hard spheres, relevant for repulsive colloids and dense liquids, and the cubic and hexagonal diamond forming in water, relevant also for other group 14 elements such as carbon and silicon. We introduce a novel structural order parameter that combined with a neural network classification scheme allows us to study the properties of the growing nucleus from the early stages of nucleation. We find that small nuclei have distinct size fluctuations and compositions from the nuclei that emerge from the growth stage. The transition between these two regimes is characterized by the formation of onion-like structures, in which the composition changes with the distance from the center of the nucleus, similarly to what seen in two-step nucleation process.