Systems with Size and Energy Polydispersity: From Glasses to Mosaic Crystals

Abstract

We use Langevin dynamics simulations to study dense 2d systems of particles with both size and energy polydispersity. We compare two types of bidisperse systems which differ in the correlation between particle size and interaction parameters: in one system big particles have high interaction parameters and small particles have low interaction parameters, while in the other system the situation is reversed. We study the different phases of the two systems and compare them to those of a system with size but not energy bidispersity. We show that, depending on the strength of interaction between big and small particles, cooling to low temperatures yields either homogeneous glasses or mosaic crystals. We find that systems with low mixing interaction, undergo partial freezing of one of the components at intermediate temperatures, and that while this phenomenon is energy-driven in both size and energy bidisperse systems, it is controlled by entropic effects in systems with size bidispersity only.