The Free-Energy Landscape of Clusters of Attractive Hard Spheres

被引:260
作者
Meng, Guangnan [1 ]
Arkus, Natalie [2 ]
Brenner, Michael P. [2 ]
Manoharan, Vinothan N. [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Dept Phys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[2] Harvard Univ, Harvard Sch Engn & Appl Sci, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS; MONATOMIC SYSTEMS; LIQUIDS; PACKING; MECHANICS; SYMMETRY; STATICS; RANGE;
D O I
10.1126/science.1181263
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The study of clusters has provided a tangible link between local geometry and bulk condensed matter, but experiments have not yet systematically explored the thermodynamics of the smallest clusters. Here we present experimental measurements of the structures and free energies of colloidal clusters in which the particles act as hard spheres with short-range attractions. We found that highly symmetric clusters are strongly suppressed by rotational entropy, whereas the most stable clusters have anharmonic vibrational modes or extra bonds. Many of these clusters are subsets of close-packed lattices. As the number of particles increases from 6 to 10, we observe the emergence of a complex free-energy landscape with a small number of ground states and many local minima.
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页码:560 / 563
页数:4
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