Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Elastic Theory Of Defects In Toroidal Crystals, Mark Bowick, Luca Giomi
Elastic Theory Of Defects In Toroidal Crystals, Mark Bowick, Luca Giomi
Physics - All Scholarship
We report a comprehensive analysis of the ground state properties of axisymmetric toroidal crystals based on the elastic theory of defects on curved substrates. The ground state is analyzed as a function of the aspect ratio of the torus, which provides a non-local measure of the underlying Gaussian curvature, and the ratio of the defect core-energy to the Young modulus. Several structural features are discussed,including a spectacular example of curvature-driven amorphization in the limit of the aspect ratio approaching one. The outcome of the elastic theory is then compared with the results of a numerical study of a system of …
Toroidal Crystals, Mark Bowick, Luca Giomi
Toroidal Crystals, Mark Bowick, Luca Giomi
Physics - All Scholarship
Crystalline assemblages of identical sub-units packed together and elastically bent in the form of a torus have been found in the past ten years in a variety of systems of surprisingly different nature, such as viral capsids, self-assembled monolayers and carbon nanomaterials. In this Letter we analyze the structural properties of toroidal crystals and we provide a unified description based on the elastic theory of defects in curved geometries. We find ground states characterized by the presence of 5-fold disclinations on the exterior of the torus and 7-fold disclinations in the interior. The number of excess disclinations is controlled primarily …