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2D crystals

The Wulff construction goes low-symmetry

An apparent quirk of mathematics draws on a symmetry and resolves the issue of how to determine the equilibrium shape of crystals of two-dimensional materials with asymmetric terminations.

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Fig. 1: A simple example of a Wulff construction for an asymmetric crystal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Swedish Research Council (grant numbers 2018-06482, 2020-04935 and 2021-05072) and the Excellence Initiative Nano at Chalmers.

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Correspondence to Paul Erhart.

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Erhart, P., Rahm, J.M. The Wulff construction goes low-symmetry. Nat. Mater. 22, 941–942 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01407-x

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