2013/02/01 by Rakesh S. Singh, Singh, Rakesh S., Mantu Santra +3
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1302.0087
openalex publication_date 2013/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Melting and freezing transitions in two dimensional systems are known to show highly unusual characteristics. Most of the earlier studies considered atomic systems; the melting behavior in two dimensional molecular solids is still largely unexplored. In order to understand the role of multiple energy and length scales present in molecular systems on nature of melting transition, here we report computer simulation studies of melting of a two dimensional Mercedes-Benz (MB) system. We find that the interplay between the strength of isotropic and anisotropic interactions can give rise to rich phase diagram. The computed solid-liquid phase diagram consists of isotropic liquid and two crystalline phases - honeycomb and oblique. In contradiction to the celebrated KTHNY theory, we observe strongly one step first order melting transitions for both the honeycomb and oblique solids. The defects in both solids and liquids near the transition are more complex compared to the atomic systems.