Glass phase in mononodisperse clean systems with cluster-forming potentials

by Dr Rogelio Diaz-Mendez (KTH)

Tuesday 21 Mar 2017, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

112:028 (Nordita South)

At low temperature, a monodispersed ensemble of particles with ultrasoft interactions exhibits an ordered self-assembled cluster-crystal structure. We explore the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium dynamics for two-dimensional versions of such system through molecular dynamics simulations. For quenches below certain temperature, the suppression of thermally-activated particle hopping hinders the ordering process of the crystal and results in an exotic crystal-to-glass transition via an abrupt loss of both long-range orientational order and local hexatic order. We provide a microscopic explanation of the mechanism for glass formation in terms of an effective self-induced polydispersity in the cluster occupation, as a result of suppressed hopping at low temperature. These findings are likely to be observed in a wide variety of experiments ranging from cold atoms to colloids and vortices in superconductors.