Role of the Prestructured Surface Cloud in Crystal Nucleation
- Author(s)
- Wolfgang Lechner, Christoph Dellago, Peter G Bolhuis
- Abstract
For the homogeneous crystal nucleation process in a soft-core colloid model, we identify optimal reaction coordinates from a set of novel order parameters based on the local structure within the nucleus, by employing transition path sampling techniques combined with a likelihood maximization of the committor function. We find that nucleation is governed by solid clusters that consist of an hcp core embedded within a cloud of surface particles that are highly correlated with their nearest neighbors but not ordered in a high-symmetry crystal structure. The results shed new light on the interpretation of the surface and volume terms in classical nucleation theory.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- University of Amsterdam (UvA)
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Volume
- 106
- No. of pages
- 4
- ISSN
- 0031-9007
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.085701
- Publication date
- 2011
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 1030 Physics, Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/role-of-the-prestructured-surface-cloud-in-crystal-nucleation(a1d43fbd-9dd7-4e96-aa4f-811e0fc1ef2b).html