Event-chain Monte Carlo simulations of the liquid to solid transition of two-dimensional decagonal colloidal quasicrystals.

In event-chain Monte Carlo simulations, we model colloidal particles in two dimensions that interact according to an isotropic short-ranged pair potential which supports the two typical length scales present in decagonal quasicrystals. We investigate the assembled structures as we vary the density and temperature. Our special interest is related to the transition from quasicrystal to liquid.

Growth of two-dimensional dodecagonal colloidal quasicrystals: Particles with isotropic pair interactions with two length scales vs. patchy colloids with preferred binding angles.

We explore the growth of colloidal quasicrystals with dodecagonal symmetry in two dimensions by employing Brownian dynamics simulations. On the one hand, we study the growth behavior of structures obtained in a system of particles that interact according to an isotropic pair potential with two typical length scales. On the other hand, we consider patchy colloids that possess only one typical interaction length scale but prefer given binding angles.

Growth of two-dimensional decagonal colloidal quasicrystals.

The growth of quasicrystals, i.e. structures with long-range positional order but no periodic translational symmetry, is more complex than the growth of periodic crystals.

Detection of phonon and phason modes in intrinsic colloidal quasicrystals by reconstructing their structure in hyperspace.

Phasons are additional degrees of freedom which occur in quasicrystals alongside the phonons known from conventional periodic crystals. The rearrangements of particles that are associated with a phason mode are hard to interpret in physical space. We reconstruct the quasicrystal structure by an embedding into extended higher-dimensional space, where phasons correspond to displacements perpendicular to the physical space.