Grain Boundary Scars and Spherical Crystallography

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by Lidiya Mishchenko


Reference

A. R. Bausch, M. J. Bowick, A. Cacciuto, A. D. Dinsmore, M. F. Hsu, D. R. Nelson, M. G. Nikolaides, A. Travesset, D. A. Weitz, Grain Boundary Scars and Spherical Crystallography, Science 299, 1716-1718 (2003).


Abstract

We describe experimental investigations of the structure of two-dimensional spherical crystals. The crystals, formed by beads self-assembled on water droplets in oil, serve as model systems for exploring very general theories about the minimum-energy configurations of particles with arbitrary repulsive interactions on curved surfaces. Above a critical system size we find that crystals develop distinctive high-angle grain boundaries, or scars, not found in planar crystals. The number of excess defects in a scar is shown to grow linearly with the dimensionless system size. The observed slope is expected to be universal, independent of the microscopic potential.


Soft Matter Keywords

Colloid, interface, crystal defects, stress/strain on lattice


Soft Matter Example

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