Lab Home | Phone | Search
Center for Nonlinear Studies  Center for Nonlinear Studies
 Home 
 People 
 Current 
 Executive Committee 
 Postdocs 
 Visitors 
 Students 
 Research 
 Publications 
 Conferences 
 Workshops 
 Sponsorship 
 Talks 
 Seminars 
 Postdoc Seminars Archive 
 Quantum Lunch 
 Quantum Lunch Archive 
 P/T Colloquia 
 Archive 
 Ulam Scholar 
 
 Postdoc Nominations 
 Student Requests 
 Student Program 
 Visitor Requests 
 Description 
 Past Visitors 
 Services 
 General 
 
 History of CNLS 
 
 Maps, Directions 
 CNLS Office 
 T-Division 
 LANL 
 
Thursday, November 15, 2012
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Student Seminar

Tailoring Complex Pattern Formation on Simple Substrates for Materials Science Applications

Danielle McDermott
Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame

We examine pattern formation of colloids atop a square periodic substrate using large scale numerical simulations. The pins forming the substrate are modeled with a muffin-tin potential which is flat with localized traps. We show that with 4 colloids per pinning site the system has triangular ordering and with 5 colloids per site it has square ordering. We study intermediate fillings and identify a rich variety of distinct ordering regimes including disordered grain boundaries, crystalline stripe structures, superlattice orderings, and disordered patches of multiple phases. We also apply a drive to the system, and show that several dynamically ordered states arise. Our results show that periodic substrates of muffin-tin potentials can be used to tailor grain boundary formation.

Host: Cynthia Reichhardt, T-1, 665-1134