Effective substrate potentials with quasicrystalline symmetry depend on the size of the adsorbed particles

Eur Phys J E Soft Matter. 2015 Jun;38(6):54. doi: 10.1140/epje/i2015-15054-y. Epub 2015 Jun 22.

Abstract

We explore the effective potential landscapes that extended particles experience when adsorbed on the surface of quasicrystals. Commonly, these are solids with long-ranged order but no translational symmetry. The effective potentials significantly depend on the size of the adsorbed particles. We show how changing the particle radius changes the so-called local isomorphism class of the effective quasicrystalline pattern. This means effective potentials for different particle sizes cannot directly be mapped onto each other. Our theoretical predictions are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. The results are important for colloidal particles with different sizes that are subjected to laser fields with quasicrystalline symmetry as well as for systems where extended molecules are deposited onto the surface of metallic quasicrystals.