Monte Carlo approach for studying microphases applied to the axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising and the Ising-Coulomb models
Abstract
The equilibrium phase behavior of microphase-forming systems is notoriously difficult
to obtain because of the extended metastability of their modulated phases. In this
paper we present a systematic simulation methodology for studying layered microphases
and apply the approach to two prototypical lattice-based systems: the three-dimensional
axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising (ANNNI) and Ising-Coulomb (IC) models. The method
involves thermodynamically integrating along a reversible path established between
a reference system of free spins under an ordering field and the system of interest.
The resulting free-energy calculations unambiguously locate the phase boundaries.
Simple phases are not found to play a particularly significant role in the devil's
flowers and interfacial roughening plays at most a small role in the ANNNI layered
regime. With the help of generalized order parameters, the paramagnetic-modulated
critical transition of the ANNNI model is also studied. We confirm the XY universality
of the paramagnetic-modulated transition and its isotropic nature. © 2011 American
Physical Society.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12599Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1103/PhysRevB.83.214303Publication Info
Zhang, K; & Charbonneau, P (2011). Monte Carlo approach for studying microphases applied to the axial next-nearest-neighbor
Ising and the Ising-Coulomb models. Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 83(21). 10.1103/PhysRevB.83.214303. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12599.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Patrick Charbonneau
Professor of Chemistry
Professor Charbonneau studies soft matter. His work combines theory and simulation
to understand the glass problem, protein crystallization, microphase formation, and colloidal
assembly in external fields.
kai zhang
AssistantProfessor of Chemistry at Duke Kunshan University
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AwLpbdkAAAAJ&hl=en
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles