Degenerate Quasicrystal of Hard Triangular Bipyramids
Abstract
We report a degenerate quasicrystal in Monte Carlo simulations of hard triangular bipyramids each composed of two regular tetrahedra sharing a single face. The dodecagonal quasicrystal is similar to that recently reported for hard tetrahedra [Haji-Akbari et al., Nature (London) 462, 773 (2009)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/nature08641] but degenerate in the pairing of tetrahedra, and self-assembles at packing fractions above 54%. This notion of degeneracy differs from the degeneracy of a quasiperiodic random tiling arising through phason flips. Free energy calculations show that a triclinic crystal is preferred at high packing fractions.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- November 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.215702
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1106.5561
- Bibcode:
- 2011PhRvL.107u5702H
- Keywords:
-
- 64.60.Cn;
- 05.10.Ln;
- 61.44.Br;
- 64.60.My;
- Order-disorder transformations;
- statistical mechanics of model systems;
- Monte Carlo methods;
- Quasicrystals;
- Metastable phases;
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 5 figures, includes four additional pages of supplementary information