Computing Optimal Interfacial Structure of Modulated Phases. (5th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Jie; Wang, Chu; Shi, An-Chang; Zhang, Pingwen
• Is Part Of: Communications in computational physics. Volume 21:Number 1(2017:Jan.)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 15
• Publication Date: 2016-12-05
• Subjects: 82B24, -- 82-08; 05.70.Np, -- 82.35.Jk, -- 68.35.Ct; Interface, -- modulated phase, -- metastable state, -- compatibility, -- Landau-Brazovskii model; Mathematical physics -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Physics -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 530.150285
• DOI: 10.4208/cicp.OA-2016-0020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1815-2406

Abstract

Abstract: We propose a general framework of computing interfacial structures between two modulated phases. Specifically we propose to use a computational box consisting of two half spaces, each occupied by a modulated phase with given position and orientation. The boundary conditions and basis functions are chosen to be commensurate with the bulk phases. We observe that the ordered nature of modulated structures stabilizes the interface, which enables us to obtain optimal interfacial structures by searching local minima of the free energy landscape. The framework is applied to the Landau-Brazovskii model to investigate interfaces between modulated phases with different relative positions and orientations. Several types of novel complex interfacial structures emerge from the calculations.