Shape-induced chiral ordering in two-dimensional packing of snowmanlike dimeric particles.
Understanding the distinctive phase behaviors in random packing due to particle shapes is an important issue in condensed matter physics. In this paper, we investigate the random packing structure of two-dimensional (2D) snowmen via wax-snowman packing experiments and Brownian dynamics simulations. Both experiments and simulations reveal that neighboring snowmen have a strong short-range orientational correlation and consequently locally form particular conformations. A chiral conformation is dominant for high area fractions near the jamming condition (φ>0.8), and the proportion of the chiral conformation increases with γ. We also found that the attractive interaction does not have a significant impact on the results. The geometry of chirally ordered snowmen causes a mismatch with 2D crystalline symmetries and thus inhibits the development of long-range spatial order, despite the strong orientational correlation between neighbors.
Department of Physics, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
Youngkyu
Y
Han
Juncheol
J
Lee
Siyoung Q
SQ
Choi
Myung Chul
MC
Choi
Mahn Won
MW
Kim