Abstract:

Due to structural incommensurability, the emergence of a quasicrystal from a crystalline phase represents a challenge to computational physics. Here, the nucleation of quasicrystals is investigated by using an efficient computational method applied to a Landau free-energy functional. Specifically, transition pathways connecting different localminima of the Lifshitz-Petrich model are obtained by using the high-index saddle dynamics. Saddle points on these paths are identified as the critical nuclei of the 6-fold crystals and 12-fold quasicrystals. The results reveal that phase transitions between the crystalline and quasicrystalline phases could follow two possible pathways, corresponding to a one-stage phase transition and a two-stage phase transition involving a metastable lamellar quasicrystalline state, respectively.

(Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8670460/)

Papers Published in 2021:
[1] Wang, W;Zhang, LandZhang, PW. Modelling and computation of liquid crystals.ACTA NUMERICA.2021;30: pp.765-851
[2] Han YC, Yin JY,Zhang PW, Majumdar A,Zhang L. Solution landscape of a reduced Landau-de Gennes model on a hexagon. NONLINEARITY. 2021;34(4): pp.2048-2069

Academician Zhang Pingwen 

 Associate Prof. Zhang Lei