2010/05/31 by Ran Ni, Simone Belli, René van Roij +2 · 2 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical physics #Condensed matter physics #Instability #Isotropy #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mechanics #Nucleation #Optics #Phase (matter) #Physics #Rod #Spinodal #Spinodal decomposition #Supersaturation #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.088302
published as Phys. Rev. Lett., 2010, 105, 088302 · Accepted by Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2010/07/15 · openalex publication_date 2010/08/16 · arxiv updated 2012/08/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Using simulations we identify three dynamic regimes in supersaturated isotropic fluid states of short hard rods: (i) for moderate supersaturations, we observe nucleation of multilayered crystalline clusters; (ii) at higher supersaturation, we find nucleation of small crystallites which arrange into long-lived locally favored structures that get kinetically arrested; and (iii) at even higher supersaturation, the dynamic arrest is due to the conventional cage-trapping glass transition. For longer rods we find that the formation of the (stable) smectic phase out of a supersaturated isotropic state is strongly suppressed by an isotropic-nematic spinodal instability that causes huge spinodal-like orientation fluctuations with nematic clusters diverging in size. Our results show that glassy dynamics and spinodal instabilities set kinetic limits to nucleation in highly supersaturated hard-rod fluids.