arXiv subjects

C. Fusco

Publications and source records attributed to C. Fusco.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

Boson peak and Ioffe-Regel criterion in amorphous silicon-like materials: the effect of bond directionality

The vibrational properties of model amorphous materials are studied by combining complete analysis of the vibration modes, dynamical structure factor and energy diffusivity with exact diagonalization of the dynamical matrix and the Kernel Polynomial Method which allows a study of very large system sizes. Different materials are studied that differ only by the bending rigidity of the interactions in a Stillinger-Weber modelization used to describe amorphous silicon. The local bending rigidity can thus be used as a control parameter, to tune the sound velocity together with local bonds directionality. It is shown that for all the systems studied, the upper limit of the Boson peak corresponds to the Ioffe-Regel criterion for transverse waves, as well as to a minimum of the diffusivity. The Boson peak is followed by a diffusivity's increase supported by longitudinal phonons. The Ioffe-Regel criterion for transverse waves corresponds to a common characteristic mean-free path of 5-7 Å (which is slightly bigger for longitudinal phonons), while the fine structure of the vibrational density of states is shown to be sensitive to the local bending rigidity.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Transverse and longitudinal vibrations in amorphous silicon

We show that harmonic vibrations in amorphous silicon can be decomposed to transverse and longitudinal components in all frequency range even in the absence of the well defined wave vector ${\bf q}$. For this purpose we define the transverse component of the eigenvector with given $ω$ as a component, which does not change the volumes of Voronoi cells around atoms. The longitudinal component is the remaining orthogonal component. We have found the longitudinal and transverse components of the vibrational density of states for numerical model of amorphous silicon. The vibrations are mostly transverse below 7 THz and above 15 THz. In the frequency interval in between the vibrations have a longitudinal nature. Just this sudden transformation of vibrations at 7 THz from almost transverse to almost longitudinal ones explains the prominent peak in the diffusivity of the amorphous silicon just above 7 THz.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2014

Rheological properties vs Local Dynamics in model disordered materials at Low Temperature

We study the rheological response at low temperature of a sheared model disordered material as a function of the bond rigidity. We find that the flow curves follow a Herschel-Bulkley law, whatever is the bond rigidity, with an exponent close to 0.5. Interestingly, the apparent viscosity can be related to a single relevant time scale $t_{rel}$, suggesting a strong connection between the local dynamics and the global mechanical behaviour. We propose a model based on the competition between the nucleation and the avalanche-like propagation of spatial strain heterogeneities. This model can explain the Herschel-Bulkley exponent on the basis of the size dependence of the heterogeneities on the shear rate.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2005

Nonlinear dynamics and surface diffusion of diatomic molecules

The motion of molecules on solid surfaces is of interest for technological applications, but it is also a theoretical challenge. We study the deterministic and thermal diffusive dynamics of a dimer moving on a periodic substrate. The deterministic motion of the dimer displays strongly nonlinear features and chaotic behavior. The dimer thermal diffusive dynamics deviates from simple Arrhenius behavior, due to the coupling between vibrational and translational degrees of freedom. In the low-temperature limit the dimer diffusion can become orders of magnitude larger than that of a single atom, as also found experimentally. The relation between chaotic deterministic dynamics and stochastic thermal diffusion is discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Bistability and Hysteresis in the Sliding Friction of a Dimer

The sliding friction of a dimer moving over a periodic substrate and subjected to an external force is studied in the steady state for arbitrary temperatures within a one-dimensional model. Nonlinear phenomena that emerge include dynamic bistability and hysteresis, and can be related to earlier observations for extended systems such as the Frenkel-Kontorova model. Several observed features can be satisfactorily explained in terms of the resonance of a driven-damped nonlinear oscillator. Increasing temperature tends to lower the resonant peak and wash out the hysteresis.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Velocity dependence of atomic-scale friction: a comparative study of the one- and two-dimensional Tomlinson model

We present a comparative analysis of the velocity dependence of atomic-scale friction for the Tomlinson model, at zero and finite temperatures, in 1D and 2D, and for different values of the damping. Combining analytical arguments with numerical simulations, we show that an appreciable velocity dependence of the kinetic friction force $F_{fric}$, for small scanning velocities $v_s$ (from 1 nm/s to 2 $μ$m/s), is inherent in the Tomlinson model. In the absence of thermal fluctuations in the stick-slip regime, it has the form of a power-law, $F_{fric}-F_0\propto v_s^β$ with $β=2/3$, irrespective of dimensionality and value of the damping. Since thermal fluctuations enhance the velocity dependence of friction, we provide guidelines to establish when thermal effects are important and to which extent the surface corrugation affects the velocity dependence.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Power law load dependence of atomic friction

We present a theoretical study of the dynamics of a tip scanning a graphite surface as a function of the applied load. From the analysis of the lateral forces, we extract the friction force and the corrugation of the effective tip-surface interaction potential. We find both the friction force and potential amplitude to have a power law dependence on applied load with exponent $\sim 1.6$. We interpret these results as characteristic of sharp undeformable tips in contrast to the case of macroscopic and elastic microscopic contacts.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Nonlinear dynamics of dimers on periodic substrates

We study the dynamics of a dimer moving on a periodic one-dimensional substrate as a function of the initial kinetic energy at zero temperature. The aim is to describe, in a simplified picture, the microscopic dynamics of diatomic molecules on periodic surfaces, which is of importance for thin film formation and crystal growth. We find a complex behaviour, characterized by a variety of dynamical regimes, namely oscillatory, ``quasi-diffusive'' (chaotic) and drift motion. Parametrically resonant excitations of internal vibrations can be induced both by oscillatory and drift motion of the centre of mass. For weakly bound dimers a chaotic regime is found for a whole range of velocities between two non-chaotic phases at low and high kinetic energy. The chaotic features have been monitored by studying the Lyapunov exponents and the power spectra. Moreover, for a short-range interaction, the dimer can dissociate due to the parametric excitation of the internal motion.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2002

Microscopic mechanisms of thermal and driven diffusion of non rigid molecules on surfaces

The motion of molecules on solid surfaces is of interest for technological applications such as catalysis and lubrication, but it is also a theoretical challenge at a more fundamental level. The concept of activation barriers is very convenient for the interpretation of experiments and as input for Monte Carlo simulations but may become inadequate when mismatch with the substrate and molecular vibrations are considered. We study the simplest objects diffusing on a substrate at finite temperature $T$, namely an adatom and a diatomic molecule (dimer), using the Langevin approach. In the driven case, we analyse the characteristic curves, comparing the motion for different values of the intramolecular spacing, both for T=0 and $T\ne 0$. The mobility of the dimer is higher than that of the monomer when the drift velocity is less than the natural stretching frequency. The role of intramolecular excitations is crucial in this respect. In the undriven case, the diffusive dynamics is considered as a function of temperature. Contrary to atomic diffusion, for the dimer it is not possible to define a single, temperature independent, activation barrier. Our results suggest that vibrations can account for drastic variations of the activation barrier. This reveals a complex behaviour determined by the interplay between vibrations and a temperature dependent intramolecular equilibrium length.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2002

A microscopic 2D lattice model of dimer granular compaction with friction

We study by Monte Carlo simulation the compaction dynamics of hard dimers in 2D under the action of gravity, subjected to vertical and horizontal shaking, considering also the case in which a friction force acts for horizontal displacements of the dimers. These forces are modeled by introducing effective probabilities for all kinds of moves of the particles. We analyze the dynamics for different values of the time $τ$ during which the shaking is applied to the system and for different intensities of the forces. It turns out that the density evolution in time follows a stretched exponential behavior if $τ$ is not very large, while a power law tail develops for larger values of $τ$. Moreover, in the absence of friction, a critical value $τ^*$ exists which signals the crossover between two different regimes: for $τ< τ^*$ the asymptotic density scales with a power law of $τ$, while for $τ> τ^*$ it reaches logarithmically a maximal saturation value. Such behavior smears out when a finite friction force is present. In this situation the dynamics is slower and lower asymptotic densities are attained. In particular, for significant friction forces, the final density decreases linearly with the friction coefficient. We also compare the frictionless single tap dynamics to the sequential tapping dynamics, observing in the latter case an inverse logarithmic behavior of the density evolution, as found in the experiments.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Stretched exponential relaxation in a diffusive lattice model

We studied the single dimer dynamics in a lattice diffusive model as a function of particle density in the high densification regime. The mean square displacement is found to be subdiffusive both in one and two dimensions. The spatial dependence of the self part of the van Hove correlation function displays as function of $r$ a single peak and signals a dramatic slow down of the system for high density. The self intermediate scattering function is fitted to the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts law. The exponent $β$ extracted from the fits is density independent while the relaxation time $τ$ follows a scaling law with an exponent 2.5.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Random sequential adsorption and diffusion of dimers and k-mers on a square lattice

We have performed extensive simulations of random sequential adsorption and diffusion of $k$-mers, up to $k=5$ in two dimensions with particular attention to the case $k=2$. We focus on the behavior of the coverage and of vacancy dynamics as a function of time. We observe that for $k=2,3$ a complete coverage of the lattice is never reached, because of the existence of frozen configurations that prevent isolated vacancies in the lattice to join. From this result we argue that complete coverage is never attained for any value of $k$. The long time behavior of the coverage is not mean field and nonanalytic, with $t^{-1/2}$ as leading term. Long time coverage regimes are independent of the initial conditions while strongly depend on the diffusion probability and deposition rate and, in particular, different values of these parameters lead to different final values of the coverage. The geometrical complexity of these systems is also highlighted through an investigation of the vacancy population dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗