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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045701 (2006) [4 pages]

Formation of Polymorphic Cluster Phases for a Class of Models of Purely Repulsive Soft Spheres

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Bianca M. Mladek1, Dieter Gottwald1, Gerhard Kahl1, Martin Neumann2, and Christos N. Likos3
1Center for Computational Materials Science and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1040 Wien, Austria
2Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Wien, Strudlhofgasse 4, A-1090 Wien, Austria
3Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

See Also: Erratum

Received 7 November 2005; published 30 January 2006

We present results from density functional theory and computer simulations that unambiguously predict the occurrence of first-order freezing transitions for a large class of ultrasoft model systems into cluster crystals. The clusters consist of fully overlapping particles and arise without the existence of attractive forces. The number of particles participating in a cluster scales linearly with density, therefore the crystals feature density-independent lattice constants. Clustering is accompanied by polymorphic bcc-fcc transitions, with fcc being the stable phase at high densities.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.045701
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.045701
PACS:
64.70.Dv, 61.20.Ja, 82.30.Nr, 82.70.Dd

See Also

Erratum: Bianca M. Mladek, Dieter Gottwald, Gerhard Kahl, Martin Neumann, and Christos N. Likos, Erratum: Formation of Polymorphic Cluster Phases for a Class of Models of Purely Repulsive Soft Spheres [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045701 (2006)], Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 019901 (2006).

 
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