Disorder-driven transition to tubular phase in anisotropic two-dimensional materials

TL;DR

This paper develops a theory for disordered anisotropic 2D materials, predicting a disorder-induced transition from flat to tubular crumpled phases, with potential room-temperature applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework describing disorder effects on anisotropic 2D materials, revealing a unique tubular crumpling phase not seen in isotropic systems.

Findings

Existence of infinitely many flat phases with anisotropic elasticity.

Disorder induces a transition to a tubular crumpled phase at room temperature.

Power-law scaling of elastic moduli with a universal exponent.

Abstract

We develop a theory of anomalous elasticity in disordered two-dimensional flexible materials with orthorhombic crystal symmetry. Similar to the clean case, we predict existence of infinitely many flat phases with anisotropic bending rigidity and Young's modulus showing power-law scaling with momentum controlled by a single universal exponent the very same as in the clean isotropic case. With increase of temperature or disorder these flat phases undergo crumpling transition. Remarkably, in contrast to the isotropic materials where crumpling occurs in all spatial directions simultaneously, the anisotropic materials crumple into tubular phase. In distinction to clean case in which crumpling transition happens at unphysically high temperatures, a disorder-induced tubular crumpled phase can exist even at room-temperature conditions. Our results are applied to anisotropic atomic single layers doped by adatoms or disordered by heavy ions bombarding.