Diffusion-driven self-assembly of rodlike particles: Monte Carlo simulation on a square lattice

Area of Science:

• Statistical Mechanics
• Materials Science
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Studying diffusion-driven self-assembly is crucial for understanding material properties.
• Rodlike particles exhibit complex self-organization behaviors.
• Previous studies have explored particle assembly on lattices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the diffusion-driven self-assembly of rodlike particles (k-mers) on a 2D lattice.
• To identify the stages and final patterns of self-organization.
• To determine if the observed patterns are attractors and how lattice size affects relaxation time.

Main Methods:

• Monte Carlo simulations were employed to model particle behavior.
• Particles were represented as linear k-mers on a 2D square lattice with periodic boundary conditions.
• Parameters varied included lattice size (L=128 to 2048) and k-mer length (k=2 to 12).

Main Results:

• Distinct self-organization behaviors were observed for short and long k-mers.
• For long k-mers (k≥6), three stages were identified: jamming state destruction, cluster coarsening with labyrinth formation, and diagonal stripe domain formation.
• Diagonal stripe domains were confirmed as an attractor state, regardless of initial configuration.

Conclusions:

• The study elucidates the multi-stage self-assembly process of rodlike particles.
• Diagonal stripe patterns represent a stable attractor state in this system.
• Increased lattice size significantly prolongs the time required to reach the steady state.