Collective Dynamics of Nonlinear and Disordered Systems

Collective Dynamics of Nonlinear and Disordered Systems
Author: Günter Radons
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2005-01-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783540213833

Phase transitions in disordered systems and related dynamical phenomena are a topic of intrinsically high interest in theoretical and experimental physics. This book presents a unified view, adopting concepts from each of the disjoint fields of disordered systems and nonlinear dynamics. Special attention is paid to the glass transition, from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints, to modern concepts of pattern formation, and to the application of the concepts of dynamical systems for understanding equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of fluids and solids. The content is accessible to graduate students, but will also be of benefit to specialists, since the presentation extends as far as the topics of ongoing research work.

Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids

Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids
Author: Pierre Tol‚dano
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 476
Release: 1998
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9789810232603

This important and timely book deals with the theoretical and experimental investigation of the phase transitions which occur in complex fluid systems, namely lyotropic systems, microemulsions, colloids, gels, polymers, biological membranes, Langmuir monolayers, and ferrofluids. It contains 20-odd review papers from the major contributors to this rapidly growing field of research, summarizing the main results obtained in the description and understanding of the phase transitions taking place between the isotopic, nematic, cholesteric, lamellar, hexagonal, and cubic mesophases of complex fluids.

Handbook of Thin Films

Handbook of Thin Films
Author: Hari Singh Nalwa
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 3436
Release: 2001-11-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0080533248

This five-volume handbook focuses on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of thin films (thin layers of insulating, conducting, or semiconductor material). The editor has composed five separate, thematic volumes on thin films of metals, semimetals, glasses, ceramics, alloys, organics, diamonds, graphites, porous materials, noncrystalline solids, supramolecules, polymers, copolymers, biopolymers, composites, blends, activated carbons, intermetallics, chalcogenides, dyes, pigments, nanostructured materials, biomaterials, inorganic/polymer composites, organoceramics, metallocenes, disordered systems, liquid crystals, quasicrystals, and layered structures.Thin films is a field of the utmost importance in today's materials science, electrical engineering and applied solid state physics; with both research and industrial applications in microelectronics, computer manufacturing, and physical devices.Advanced, high-performance computers, high-definition TV, digital camcorders, sensitive broadband imaging systems, flat-panel displays, robotic systems, and medical electronics and diagnostics are but a few examples of miniaturized device technologies that depend the utilization of thin film materials. The Handbook of Thin Films Materials is a comprehensive reference focusing on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of these thin film materials.

Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals

Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals
Author: Arthur N. Chester
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2013-06-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1468491512

The Nato Advanced Study Institute "Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals" was held May 2-12, 1991, in Erice, Sicily. This was the 16th conference organized by the International School of Quantum Electronics, under the auspices of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture. The subject of "Liquid Crystals" has made amazing progress since the last ISQE Course on this subject in 1985. The present Proceedings give a tutorial introduction to today's most important areas, as well as a review of current results by leading researchers. We have brought together some of the world's acknowledged experts in the field to summarize both the present state of their research and its background. Most of the lecturers attended all the lectures and devoted their spare hours to stimulating discussions. We would like to thank them all for their admirable contributions. The Institute also took advantage of a very active audience; most of the students were active researchers in the field and contributed with discussions and seminars. Some of these student seminars are also included in these Proceedings. We did not modify the original manuscripts in editing this book, but we did group them according to the following topics: 1) "Theoretical Foundations"; 2) "Thermotropic Liquid Crystals"; 3) "Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals"; 4) "Polymeric Liquid Crystals"; and 5) "Lyotropic Liquid Crystals".

Phase Transitions and Relaxation in Systems with Competing Energy Scales

Phase Transitions and Relaxation in Systems with Competing Energy Scales
Author: T. Riste
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401119082

Systems with competing energy scales are widespread and exhibit rich and subtle behaviour, although their systematic study is a relatively recent activity. This text presents lectures given at a NATO Advanced Study Institute reviewing the current knowledge and understanding of this fascinating subject, particularly with regard to phase transitions and dynamics, at an advanced tutorial level. Both general and specific aspects are considered, with competitions having several origins; differences in intrinsic interactions, interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic effects, such as geometry and disorder; irreversibility and non-equilibration. Among the specific physical application areas are supercooled liquids and glasses, high-temperature superconductors, flux or vortex pinning and motion, charge density waves, domain growth and coarsening, and electron solidification.

A First-Principles Study of Highly Anharmonic and Dynamically Disordered Solids

A First-Principles Study of Highly Anharmonic and Dynamically Disordered Solids
Author: Johan Klarbring
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
Total Pages: 93
Release: 2020-05-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9179298559

This thesis is a first-principles theoretical investigation of solid materials with high degrees of anharmonicity. These are systems where the dynamics of the constituent atoms is too complex to be well-described by a set of uncoupled harmonic oscillators. While theoretical studies of such systems pose a significant challenge, they are under increasing demand due to the prevalence of these sytems in next-generation technological applications. Indeed, very anharmonic systems are ubiquitous in envisioned materials for future solid-state batteries and fuel-cells, thermoelectrics and optoelectronics. In some of these cases, the anharmonicity is a “side-effect” that simply has to be dealt with in order to accurately model certain properties, while in other cases the anharmonicity is the origin of the high-performance of the material. There are two main parts to the thesis: The first is on materials with perovskite-related structures. This is a very large class of materials, members of which are typically highly anharmonic, not least in relation to a series of complex phase transformations between different structural modifications. In the thesis, I have studied a specific class of such phase-transformations that relate to tilting of the framework of octahedra that make up the structure. The oxide CaMnO3 and a set of inorganic halide perovskites were taken as model systems. The results shed some light on the experimentally observed differences between the local and average atomic structure in these systems. I have further studied Cs2AgBiBr6, a member of the so-called lead-free halide double perovskites. I rationalized its temperature induced phase transformation and found high degrees of anharmonicity and ultra-low thermal conductivity. Finally, I studied the influence of nuclear quantum effects, which are often ignored in computational modelling, on the structure and bonding in the hybrid organic-inorganic lead-halide perovskite, CH3NH3PbI3. The second part of the thesis deals with theoretical studies of the phase stability of dynamically disordered solids. These are solids which have some sort of time-averaged long-range order, characteristic of a crystalline solid, but where the anharmonicity is so strong that the basic concept of an equilibrium atomic position cannot be statically assigned to all atoms. Examples include certain solids with very fast ionic conduction, so called superionics, and solids with rotating molecular units. This absence of equilibrium atomic positions makes many standard computational techniques to evaluate phase-stability inapplicable. I outline a method to deal with this issue, which is based on a stress-strain thermodynamic integration on a deformation path from an ordered variant to the dynamically disordered phase itself. I apply the method to study the phase stability of the high-temperature ?-phase of Bi2O3, which is the fastest know solid oxide ion conductor, and to Li2C2, whose high temperature cubic phase contains rotating C2 dimers. The thesis exemplifies the need to go beyond many of the standard approximations used in first-principles computational materials science if accurate theoretical predictions are to be made. This is true, in particular, for many emerging material classes in the field of energy materials. I den konventionella teoretiska modellen för ett (kristallint) fast material antags varje atom kunna tillordnas en jämviktsposition. Rörelsen av atomerna runt dessa jämviktspositioner antags sedan ofta vara harmoniskt, d.v.s. hyfsat kunna beskrivs i termer av en samling (kvantmekaniska) fjädrar. Denna avhandling behandlar teori- och beräkningsstudier av material där ett eller båda av dessa antaganden inte är giltiga, så kallade anharmoniska material. En nogrann teoretisk behandling av sådana material är ofta ordentligt utmanande. I takt med en snabb teknologiska utveckling ställs allt mer specifika och stränga krav på de material som behövs för diverse applikationer. Inom flertalet områden dyker då denna typ av komplexa och anharmoniska material upp som potentiella kandidater. Till exempel som fastelektrolyter för batterier och bränsleceller eller som solcellsmaterial. Inom vissa applikationer är denna anharmonicitet en bieffekt som man helt enkelt måste ta hänsyn till för att kunna göra noggranna teoretiska förutsägelser om diverse materialegenskaper, i andra fall är anharmoniciteten själva ursprunget för materialets goda egenskaper. I den första delen av avhandlingen behandlar jag material som har, eller är nära relaterade till, den så kallade perovskitstrukturen. Detta är en väldigt stor klass av material, och strukturen dyker därför upp inom en mängd olika tillämpningar, inte minst i lovande solcellsmaterial. Dessa material är ofta mycket anharmoniska, vilket tar sig uttryck bland annat i en rad komplexa fastransformationer mellan olika typer av perovskitmodifikationer. I perovskitoxiden CaMnO3, samt i en samling halogenperovskiter, har jag har studerat en specifik typ av fastransformationer som tillkommer på grund av rotationer av de oktaedrar som utgör en del av strukturen. Jag har fortsatt studerat den väldigt kraftiga anharmoniciteten i den så kallade blyfria halogendubbelperovskiten Cs2AgBiBr6, och slutligen har jag studerat hur en kvantmekanisk behandling av atomkärnorna, något som oftast inte görs, påverkar materialegenskaper i CH3NH3PbI3, en så kallad hybrid organisk-inorganisk bly-halogenperovskit, som är ett extremt lovande solcellsmaterial. I den andra delen av avhandlingen studerar jag dynamiskt oordnade fasta material. I dessa material är atomernas rörelse för komplex för att varje atom ska kunna tilldellas en statisk jämviktsposition. Material i denna klass är, till exempel, lovande som fastelektrolyter i bränsleceller och batterier. Mer specifikt studerar jag en typ av fasövergång, från en ordnad fas till en fas med dynamisk oordning, som ofta sker när dessa material värms upp. Jag introducerar en beräkningsmetod för att utvärdera deras fasstabilitet. Metoden är baserad på en så kallad termodynamisk integration, utförd mellan en ordnad variant och den dynamiskt oordnade fasen själv. Metoden gör det möjligt att beräkna fastransformationstemperaturer i denna typ av material. Jag applicerar metoden på Bi2O3, som i sin ?-fas är det fasta material med högst känd syrejonledningsförmåga, samt på Li2C2 vars kubiska fas innehåller roterande C2 molekyler. Resultaten stämmer bra överens med kända experimentella mätningar.

Topology of Disordered Networks and their Applications

Topology of Disordered Networks and their Applications
Author: Punit Boolchand
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 2889639878

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

Structural Phase Transitions II

Structural Phase Transitions II
Author: K. Alex Müller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3662101130

Structural Phase Transitions II, like its predecessor (Topics in Current Physics, Vol. 23), presents selected methods and recent advances in the experimental investigation of phase transitions in solids. The two chapters in this volume deal with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and with nuclear magnetic and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NMR-NQR). Both techniques are particularly sensitive to local properties. The chapter on EPR concentrates largely on the investigation of static properties, including mean-field behaviour, critical and multicritical phenomena, whilst NMR is shown to be a powerful tool for studying nonlinear dynamics, incommensurate transitions, and disordered systems. This book will serve as an excellent introduction to the methodology and applications of EPR and NMR-NQR for all those wishing to become acquainted with these important tools for studying structural phase transitions.