Self-organized defect strings in two-dimensional crystals

Author(s)
Wolfgang Lechner, David Polster, Georg Maret, Peter Keim, Christoph Dellago
Abstract

Using experiments with single-particle resolution and computer simulations we study the collective behavior of multiple vacancies injected into two-dimensional crystals. We find that the defects assemble into linear strings, terminated by dislocations with antiparallel Burgers vectors. We show that these defect strings propagate through the crystal in a succession of rapid one-dimensional gliding and rare rotations. While the rotation rate decreases exponentially with the number of defects in the string, the diffusion constant is constant for large strings. By monitoring the separation of the dislocations at the end points, we measure their effective interactions with high precision beyond their spontaneous formation and annihilation, and we explain the double-well form of the dislocation interaction in terms of continuum elasticity theory.

Organisation(s)
Computational and Soft Matter Physics
External organisation(s)
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), Universität Konstanz, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
Journal
Physical Review E
Volume
88
No. of pages
4
ISSN
1539-3755
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.060402
Publication date
12-2013
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103036 Theoretical physics, 103015 Condensed matter, 103029 Statistical physics
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/16f6ec8f-0ab7-417e-a926-6c029f74c75c