Spontaneous formation of cubic phases: a molecular dynamics study for soft repulsive spherocylinders

Spontaneous formation of structures with 'cubic symmetry' is observed by molecular dynamics simulation. We show that many phases with cubic symmetry with planes of edge dislocations appear when the Sm layers are allowed to break up at relatively low pressures. The phases obtained can be interpreted as bend-grain-boundary phases consisting of edge dislocations, the counterpart of the twist-grain-boundary phase consisting of screw dislocations.