Broken symmetries in quasi-2D charged systems via negative dielectric confinement

We report spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phenomena in symmetrically charged binary particle systems under planar nanoconfinement with negative dielectric constants. The SSB is triggered solely via the dielectric confinement effect, without any external fields. The mechanism of SSB is found to b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of chemical physics 2024-07, Vol.161 (1)
Main Authors: Gao, Xuanzhao, Gan, Zecheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Broken symmetry
Confinement
Lattice parameters
Molecular dynamics
Nanotechnology devices
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Summary:We report spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phenomena in symmetrically charged binary particle systems under planar nanoconfinement with negative dielectric constants. The SSB is triggered solely via the dielectric confinement effect, without any external fields. The mechanism of SSB is found to be caused by the strong polarization field enhanced by nanoconfinement, giving rise to charge/field oscillations in the transverse directions. Interestingly, dielectric contrast can even determine the degree of SSB in transverse and longitudinal dimensions, forming charge-separated interfacial liquids and clusters on square lattices. Furthermore, we analytically show that the formed lattice constant is determined by the dielectric mismatch and the length scale of confinement, which is validated via molecular dynamics simulations. The novel broken symmetry mechanism may provide new insights into the study of quasi-2D systems and the design of future nanodevices.
ISSN:0021-9606
1089-7690
1089-7690
DOI:10.1063/5.0214523