Particle shape matters

Shape-Anisotropy-Induced Ordered Packings in Cylindrical Confinement

Weiwei Jin (金炜炜), Ho-Kei Chan (陈浩基), and Zheng Zhong (仲政)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 248002 – Published 16 June 2020

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.248002

ABSTRACT

Densest possible packings of identical spheroids in cylindrical confinement have been obtained through Monte Carlo simulations. By varying the shape anisotropy of spheroids and also the cylinder-to-spheroid size ratio, a variety of densest possible crystalline structures have been discovered, including achiral structures with specific orientations of particles and chiral helical structures with rotating orientations of particles. Our findings reveal a transition between confinement-induced chiral ordering and shape-anisotropy-induced orientational ordering and would serve as a guide for the fabrication of crystalline wires using anisotropic particles.