Dynamical solid-liquid transition through oscillatory shear

Soft Matter. 2019 May 29;15(21):4371-4379. doi: 10.1039/c8sm01950a.

Abstract

Starting from an ideal crystalline state, we numerically study a nonequilibrium dynamical order-disorder transition promoted by the application of a periodic shearing protocol at low temperatures in model systems in three dimensions. We observe a discontinuous dynamical transition from an ordered to a disordered steady state. Through the analysis of large-scale simulations, we show that the amorphization mechanism around the discontinuous transition is reminiscent of spinodal decomposition.