Spontaneous emergence of ordered phases in crumpled sheets.
X-ray tomography is performed to acquire 3D images of crumpled aluminum foils. We develop an algorithm to trace out the labyrinthian paths in the three perpendicular cross sections of the data matrices. The tangent-tangent correlation function along each path is found to decay exponentially with an effective persistence length that shortens as the crumpled ball becomes more compact. In the meantime, we observed ordered domains near the crust, similar to the lamellae phase mixed by the amorphous portion in lyotropic liquid crystals. The size and density of these domains grow with further compaction, and their orientation favors either perpendicular or parallel to the radial direction. Ordering is also identified near the core with an arbitrary orientation, exemplary of the spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Lin
Yen-Chih
YC
Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, Republic of China.
Sun
Ji-Ming
JM
Hsiao
Jen-Hao
JH
Hwu
Yeukuang
Y
Wang
C L
CL
Hong
Tzay-Ming
TM