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Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
A smectic dodecagonal quasicrystal
Alfredo Metere1, Peter Oleynikov2, Mikhail Dzugutov3
1Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Computational Materials Science in the Condensed Matter and Materials Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue L-367, Livermore, CA - 94550, USA. metere1@llnl.gov.
Abstract:
We report a solid smectic phase that exhibits dodecagonal global order. It is composed of axially stacked hexagonally ordered particle layers, and its 12-fold rotational symmetry induced by the 30° rotation of adjacent layers with respect to each other. A quasicrystal was produced in a molecular-dynamics simulation of a single-component system of particles interacting via a spherically-symmetric potential. It was formed as a result of a first-order phase transition from an isotropic liquid state that occurred under constant-density cooling. This finding implies that a similarly structured quasicrystal can possibly be produced by the same class of systems as those forming smectic-B crystals. This quasicrystal can also be expected to arise in a system of spherically-shaped colloidal particles with appropriately tuned potential.
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