New kind of dodecagonal quasicrystal

2015/03/16 by Alfredo Metere, Peter Oleynikov, Metere, Alfredo +5
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Mineralogy and Gemology Studies #Quasicrystal Structures and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1503.04846

Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

openalex publication_date 2015/03/16 · arxiv created 2015/04/15 · arxiv updated 2015/04/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report a novel kind of dodecagonal quasicrystal that has so far never been observed, nor theoretically predicted. It is composed of axially stacked hexagonal particle layers, with 12-fold rotational symmetry induced by 30 degrees rotation of adjacent layers with respect to each other. The quasicrystal was produced in a molecular-dynamics simulation of a single-component system of particles interacting via a spherically-symmetric potential, as a result of a first-order phase transition from a liquid phase under constant-density cooling. This finding implies that a similarly structured quasicrystal can possibly be produced by the mesogens of the kind that produce smectic-B crystals and in a system of spherically-shaped colloidal particles with appropriately tuned potential.

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