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Fibrillar templates and soft phases in systems with short-range dipolar and long-range interactions
C J Olson Reichhardt1, C Reichhardt, A R Bishop
1Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|February 3, 2004
Abstract:
We analyze the thermal fluctuations of particles that have a short-range dipolar attraction and a long-range repulsion. In an inhomogeneous particle density region, or "soft phase," filamentary patterns appear which are destroyed only at very high temperatures. The filaments act as a fluctuating template for correlated percolation in which low-energy excitations can move through the stable pattern by local rearrangements. At intermediate temperatures, dynamically averaged checkerboard states appear. We discuss possible implications for doped cuprate oxides and related materials.