Onset of heterogeneous crystal nucleation in colloidal suspensions

The addition of small 'seed' particles to a supersaturated solution can greatly increase the rate at which crystals nucleate. This process is understood, at least qualitatively, when the seed has the same structure as the crystal that it spawns. However, the microscopic mechanism of seeding by a 'foreign' substance is not well understood. Here we report numerical simulations of colloidal crystallization seeded by foreign objects. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to study how smooth spherical seeds of various sizes affect crystallization in a suspension of hard colloidal particles. We compute the free-energy barrier associated with crystal nucleation. A low barrier implies that nucleation is easy. We find that to be effective crystallization promoters, the seed particles need to exceed a well-defined minimum size. Just above this size, seed particles act as crystallization 'catalysts' as newly formed crystallites detach from the seed. In contrast, larger seed particles remain covered by the crystallites that they spawn. This phenomenon should be experimentally observable and can have important consequences for the control of the resulting crystal size distribution.     

空调系统多分散相颗粒悬浮扩散的数值模拟

为了研究多分散相颗粒在通风空调系统中悬浮扩散过程,采用CFD方法,根据力或力矩平衡原理,针对通风空调系统粘性底层中颗粒的悬浮运动进行了数值模拟;连续相采用Euler方法,离散相采用Lagarngian方法进行模拟;湍流流动采用标准k-ε模型进行求解.通风空调系统可悬浮颗粒在起始送风气流作用下分多次送入室内;相比较管道越长起始的送入量越少;在直管段上近端送风口的送出量大于远端送风口的送出量;在直管段上增加弯管后,送出量减少而沉降量增多.采用的数值模型合理,有效的捕捉了流场和颗粒运动规律.     

Suppression of crystal nucleation in polydisperse colloids due to increase of the surface free energy

The formation of small crystallites is governed by two competing factors: the free energy gained upon transferring constituent atoms, molecules or colloidal particles from the metastable liquid to the more stable solid, and the free energy needed to create the surface area of the crystallite. Because the ratio of surface area to bulk is large for small particles, small crystallites dissolve spontaneously under conditions where larger crystallites are stable and macroscopic crystal growth occurs only if spontaneously formed crystallites exceed a critical minimum size. On theoretical grounds, the probability of forming such critical crystal nuclei is expected to increase rapidly with supersaturation. However, experiments show that the rate of crystal nucleation in many systems goes through a maximum as the supersaturation is increased. It is commonly assumed that the nucleation rate peaks because, even though the probability of forming critical nuclei increases with increasing concentration, the rate of growth of such nuclei decreases. Here we report simulations of crystal nucleation in suspensions of colloidal spheres with varying size distributions that show that the probability that critical nuclei will form itself goes through a maximum as the supersaturation is increased. We find that this effect, which is strongest for systems with the broadest particle size distribution, results from an increase with supersaturation of the solid-liquid interfacial free energy. The magnitude of this effect suggests that vitrification at high supersaturations should yield colloidal glasses that are truly amorphous, rather than nano-crystalline.     

二元胶体的熵驱动相变

利用二元胶体的硬球模型,讨论了胶体的熵驱动相变机制,排斥体积发挥了重要作用,增加小球的自由体积,导致系统的平移熵增加,同时系统的混合熵减少,随着溶液浓度增加,必须保证小球有足够的平移熵,导致系统相分离的发生,溶液呈现宏观有序.     

Room-temperature electronic phase transitions in the continuous phase diagrams of perovskite manganites

Highly correlated electronic systems--such as transition-metal oxides that are doped Mott insulators--are complex systems which exhibit puzzling phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistivity. Recent studies suggest that in such systems collective electronic phenomena are important, arising from long-range Coulomb interactions and magnetic effects. The qualitative behaviour of these systems is strongly dependent on charge filling (the level of doping) and the lattice constant. Here we report a time-efficient and systematic experimental approach for studying the phase diagrams of condensed-matter systems. It involves the continuous mapping of the physical properties of epitaxial thin films of perovskite manganites (a class of doped Mott insulator) as their composition is varied. We discover evidence that suggests the presence of phase boundaries of electronic origin at room temperature.     

Unusual phase transitions in ferroelectric nanodisks and nanorods

Bulk ferroelectrics undergo structural phase transformations at low temperatures, giving multi-stable (that is, multiple-minimum) degenerate states with spontaneous polarization. Accessing these states by applying, and varying the direction of, an external electric field is a key principle for the operation of devices such as non-volatile ferroelectric random access memories (NFERAMs). Compared with bulk ferroelectrics, low-dimensional finite ferroelectric structures promise to increase the storage density of NFERAMs 10,000-fold. But this anticipated benefit hinges on whether phase transitions and multi-stable states still exist in low-dimensional structures. Previous studies have suggested that phase transitions are impossible in one-dimensional systems, and become increasingly less likely as dimensionality further decreases. Here we perform ab initio studies of ferroelectric nanoscale disks and rods of technologically important Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 solid solutions, and demonstrate the existence of previously unknown phase transitions in zero-dimensional ferroelectric nanoparticles. The minimum diameter of the disks that display low-temperature structural bistability is determined to be 3.2 nm, enabling an ultimate NFERAM density of 60 x 10(12) bits per square inch-that is, five orders of magnitude larger than those currently available. Our results suggest an innovative use of ferroelectric nanostructures for data storage, and are of fundamental value for the theory of phase transition in systems of low dimensionality.     

Rigorous location of phase transitions in hard optimization problems

It is widely believed that for many optimization problems, no algorithm is substantially more efficient than exhaustive search. This means that finding optimal solutions for many practical problems is completely beyond any current or projected computational capacity. To understand the origin of this extreme 'hardness', computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists have been investigating for two decades a connection between computational complexity and phase transitions in random instances of constraint satisfaction problems. Here we present a mathematically rigorous method for locating such phase transitions. Our method works by analysing the distribution of distances between pairs of solutions as constraints are added. By identifying critical behaviour in the evolution of this distribution, we can pinpoint the threshold location for a number of problems, including the two most-studied ones: random k-SAT and random graph colouring. Our results prove that the heuristic predictions of statistical physics in this context are essentially correct. Moreover, we establish that random instances of constraint satisfaction problems have solutions well beyond the reach of any analysed algorithm.     

80Sr核yrast带形状相变的微观sdIBM2研究

γ射线能量-自旋曲线分析方法指认: 80Sr核的yrast带存在从U(5)振动基态到O(6)γ软转子基态的结构相变;借助微观sdIBM-2方案和实验单粒子能量值, 用了除K(np)外, 完全相同的一组参数成功地再现了它们相应的形状相变. 计算结果揭示: 80Sr的yrast带从基态起直到24+态都是集体态, 还没有出现回弯. 理论分析和计算结果表明: 对于有相互作用的中子-质子玻色子两流体, 在给定的g(σ),G(σ),K(σ)下, 增大K(np)意味着增强了核子对反抗Coriolis力拆对顺排的能     

离心泵内部盐析晶体颗粒分布特性

在两相混合模型的基础上,加载群体平衡模型,采用分组法对离心泵内部盐析两相流场进行数值模拟,得到了3种不同工况各尺寸盐析晶体颗粒的分布特性.预测了离心泵内液固两相流场中晶体颗粒的分布规律,与本项目前期试验结果总体趋势比较吻合,验证了群体平衡模型用于模拟伴有盐析现象两相流动的可行性.计算结果表明:叶片流道内,从压力面至吸力面颗粒平均粒径逐渐减小,流量增加,粒径较大颗粒向压力面聚集现象更加显著;涡室内颗粒平均粒径呈现的分布特征:主流区最小,内壁附近较大,离叶轮较远的壁面拐角处最大.此外,受相间传质及颗粒微观行为影响,不同粒径颗粒的组分数分布差异较大,从叶轮进口至出口,大粒径颗粒组分数逐渐增高,而中、小粒径颗粒的组分数分布趋势与之正好相反.     

网络相变的非线性成因与分布式代理对策

为改善计算机网络非线性影响,以及用户行为带来的网络性能波动,分析了网络性能相变的非线性机制,在改进的二维耦合网络模型中对规则网络、具有访问群聚特性的网络和引入分布式代理的网络进行仿真对比。研究表明:在路由器非线性的作用下,网络存在相变特性;与目的节点随机选取的规则网络相比,超文本链接网络中访问行为的大规模群聚特性使网络相变点明显左移,网络性能相对恶化;针对这种情况采用分布式代理对策,使网络相变点右移,网络性能得到明显改善。     

Strain effects and phase transitions in photonic resonator crystals

Optical structures with periodic variations of the dielectric constant in one or more directions (photonic crystals) have been employed extensively for studying optical diffraction phenomena. Practical interest in such structures arises from the possibilities they offer for tailoring photon modes, and thereby the characteristics of light propagation and light-matter interactions. Photonic resonator crystals comprising two-dimensional arrays of coupled optical microcavities have been fabricated using vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser wafers. In such structures, the light propagates mostly normal to the periodic plane. Therefore, the corresponding lateral Bragg-periodicities are larger, a feature that is advantageous for device manufacture as it allows for larger lattice constants in the lateral direction. Here we investigate strain effects in a photonic resonator crystal by shifting neighbouring lattice rows of microcavities in opposite directions, thereby introducing an alternating square or quasi-hexagonal pattern of shear strain. We find that, for strain values below a critical threshold, the lasing photon mode is virtually locked to the corresponding mode supported by the unstrained photonic crystal. At the critical strain value, we observe a phase-transition-like switching between the square and quasi-hexagonal lattice modes. The tolerance of subcritical strains suggests that the resonator crystal may be useful for applications requiring high spatial coherence across the lattice, while the mode switching could potentially be exploited in free-space optical communications.     

高自旋BC模型基态相变的研究

采用相关有效场理论,对具有正方点阵结构的S=2横向BC模型,推导出系统的磁矩公式,并利用数值计算方法得到了基态相图。研究发现三种相变线将相图分成三个区域:有序铁磁相O1、有序铁磁相O2及无序顺磁相P,一级有序-有序相变线将铁磁相分成了O1及O2,并使铁磁相O2的区域非常狭窄。     

Locally critical quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated metals.

When a metal undergoes a continuous quantum phase transition, non-Fermi-liquid behaviour arises near the critical point. All the low-energy degrees of freedom induced by quantum criticality are usually assumed to be spatially extended, corresponding to long-wavelength fluctuations of the order parameter. But this picture has been contradicted by the results of recent experiments on a prototype system: heavy fermion metals at a zero-temperature magnetic transition. In particular, neutron scattering from CeCu6-x Aux has revealed anomalous dynamics at atomic length scales, leading to much debate as to the fate of the local moments in the quantum-critical regime. Here we report our theoretical finding of a locally critical quantum phase transition in a model of heavy fermions. The dynamics at the critical point are in agreement with experiment. We propose local criticality to be a phenomenon of general relevance to strongly correlated metals.     

Reversible phase transitions in polymer gels induced by radiation forces

Many polymer gels undergo reversible, discontinuous volume changes in response to changes in the balance between repulsive intermolecular forces that act to expand the polymer network and attractive forces that act to shrink it. Repulsive forces are usually electrostatic or hydrophobic in nature, whereas attraction is mediated by hydrogen bonding or van der Waals interactions. The competition between these counteracting forces, and hence the gel volume, can thus be controlled by subtle changes in parameters such as pH (ref. 4), temperature, solvent composition or gel composition. Here we describe a more direct influence on this balance of forces, by showing that the radiation force generated by a focused laser beam induces reversible shrinkage in polymer gels. Control experiments confirm that the laser-induced volume phase transitions are due to radiation forces, rather than local heating, modifying the weak interactions in the gels, in agreement with previous observations of light-induced chain association in polymer solutions. We find that, owing to shear-relaxation processes, gel shrinkage occurs up to several tens of micrometres away from the irradiation spot, raising the prospect that the combination of stimuli-responsive polymer gels and laser light might lead to new gel-based systems for applications such as actuating or sensing.     

Observation of surface and bulk phase transitions in nematic liquid crystals

The behaviour of liquid crystal (LC) molecules near a surface is of both fundamental and technological interest: it gives rise to various surface phase-transition and wetting phenomena, and surface-induced ordering of the LC molecules is integral to the operation of LC displays. Here we report the observation of a pure isotropic-nematic (IN) surface phase transition-clearly separated from the bulk IN transition-in a nematic LC on a substrate. Differences in phase behaviour between surface and bulk are expected, but have hitherto proved difficult to distinguish, owing in part to the close proximity of their transition temperatures. We have overcome these difficulties by using a mixture of nematic LCs: small, surface-induced composition variations lead to complete separation of the surface and bulk transitions, which we then study independently as a function of substrate and applied magnetic field. We find the surface IN transition to be of first order on surfaces with a weak anchoring energy and continuous on surfaces with a strong anchoring. We show that the presence of high magnetic fields does not change the surface IN transition temperature, whereas the bulk IN transition temperature increases with field. We attribute this to the interaction energy between the surface and bulk phases, which is tuned by magnetic-field-induced order in the surface-wetting layer.     

Effect of phase transitions on compressional-wave velocities in the Earth's mantle

The velocities of seismic waves in the Earth are governed by the response of the constituent mineral assemblage to perturbations in pressure and stress. The effective bulk modulus is significantly lowered if the pressure of the seismic wave drives a volume-reducing phase transformation. A comparison between the amount of time required by phase transitions to reach equilibrium and the sampling period thus becomes crucial in defining the softening and attenuation of compressional waves within such a two-phase zone. These phenomena are difficult to assess experimentally, however, because data at conditions appropriate to the Earth's deep interior are required. Here we present synchrotron-based experimental data that demonstrate softening of the bulk modulus within the two-phase loop of olivine-ringwoodite on a timescale of 100 s. If the amplitude of the pressure perturbation and the grain size are scaled to those expected in the Earth, the compressional-wave velocities within the discontinuities at 410, 520 and, possibly, 660 km are likely to be significantly lower than otherwise expected. The generalization of these observations to aluminium-controlled phase transitions raises the possibility of large velocity perturbations throughout the upper 1,000 km of the mantle.     

液相烧结六方氮化硼陶瓷

解决六方氮化硼陶瓷烧结致密化问题是提高陶瓷性能的主要途径,以六方氮化硼为基体材料,通过研磨工艺降低粉体粒度,然后以Al2O3、Y2O3和B2O3为添加剂,在N2气氛下,均匀升温到1700～1850℃无压烧结．通过分析烧结体的显微结构和物相表明,随Y2O3和Al2O3含量的增加,烧结体的致密度明显提高,相对理论密度为80％,弯曲强度上升到67．5MPa,并且B2O3作为一种烧结助剂可以有效地提高烧结体的致密度、降低材料的烧结温度．研究结果表明液相烧结六方氮化硼在实际应用上是可行的。     

Surface modification of nanogold particles in DNA detection with quartz crystal microbalance

Nanogold particles in different sizes, from 5 to 60 nm, were utilized to modify the surface of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). It was found that the gold-particle size of the modified QCM affects both the amount of the immobilization of the probe on the surface of QCM and the hybridization rate of the target DNA. 20 nm was determined to be the optimal size for the surface modification and it can maximally increase the sensitivity of the DNA detection.     

离心泵叶轮内盐析晶体颗粒分布特性试验

采用粒子图像测速仪对离心泵叶轮内部盐析晶体颗粒分布进行了测量和分析.试验结果表明:叶轮流道中间轴截面上,在叶轮进口处多为小粒径颗粒,分布较均匀,且叶轮内晶体颗粒数密度分布在轴向上存在差异,呈现前盖板处轴截面上最小,后盖板处轴截面上最大的分布特点;沿径向,逐渐有大粒径颗粒,且大颗粒主要位于压力面及附近,至出口处大颗粒分布...