Title

Dynamics and Instabilities of Defects in Two-Dimensional Crystals on Curved Backgrounds

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Mark Bowick, Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NYFollow
Homin Shin, Syracuse University
Alex Travesset, Iowa State University

Document Type

Article

Date

3-13-2007

Language

English

Disciplines

Physics

Description/Abstract

Point defects are ubiquitous in two dimensional crystals and play a fundamental role in determining their mechanical and thermodynamical properties. When crystals are formed on a curved background, finite length grain boundaries (scars) are generally needed to stabilize the crystal. We provide a continuum elasticity analysis of defect dynamics in curved crystals. By exploiting the fact that any point defect can be obtained as an appropriate combination of disclinations, we provide an analytical determination of the elastic spring constants of dislocations within scars and compare them with existing experimental measurements from optical microscopy. We further show that vacancies and interstitials, which are stable defects in flat crystals, are generally unstable in curved geometries. This observation explains why vacancies or interstitials are never found in equilibrium spherical crystals. We finish with some further implications for experiments and future theoretical work.

Additional Information

9 pages, 11 eps figures, REVTeX More information at http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0610819

Recommended Citation

Bowick, Mark; Shin, Homin; and Travesset, Alex, "Dynamics and Instabilities of Defects in Two-Dimensional Crystals on Curved Backgrounds" (2007). Physics - All Scholarship. 148.
https://surface.syr.edu/phy/148

Source

Harvested from Arxiv.org

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.