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Hexatic smectic phase with algebraically decaying bond-orientational order
Lorenzo Agosta1, Alfredo Metere2, Mikhail Dzugutov3
1Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius Väg. 16C, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
The hexatic phase predicted by the theories of two-dimensional melting is characterized by the power-law decay of the orientational correlations, whereas the in-layer bond orientational order in all the hexatic smectic phases observed so far was found to be long range. We report a hexatic smectic phase where the in-layer bond orientational correlations decay algebraically, in quantitative agreement with the hexatic ordering predicted by the theory for two dimensions. The phase was formed in a molecular dynamics simulation of a one-component system of particles interacting via a spherically symmetric potential. The present results thus demonstrate that the theoretically predicted two-dimensional hexatic order can exist in a three-dimensional system.
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