Symmetry-specific orientational order parameters for complex structures

Jack A. Logan, Srinivas Mushnoori, Meenakshi Dutt, Alexei V. Tkachenko

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A comprehensive framework of characterizing complex self-assembled structures with a set of orientational order parameters is presented. It is especially relevant in the context of using anisotropic building blocks with various symmetries. Two classes of tensor order parameters are associated with polyhedral nematic and bond orientational order. For the latter, a variation of classical bond order parameters (BOPs) is introduced, which takes advantage of the symmetry of constituent particles and/or expected crystalline phases. These symmetrized BOPs can be averaged over an entire system or assigned locally to an individual bond. By combining that with the bond percolation procedure, one is able to identify coherent domains within a self-assembled structure. As a demonstration of the proposed framework, we apply it to a simulated hybrid system that combines isotropic and patchy particles with octahedral symmetry. Not only does the methodology allow one to identify individual crystalline domains but also it detects coherent clusters of a peculiar compact amorphous structure that is not space-filling and lacks any long-range order.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number054108
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume156
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 7 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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