Vibrations of amorphous, nanometric structures: When does continuum theory apply?
Vibrations of amorphous, nanometric structures: When does continuum theory apply?
We investigate the low-frequency end of the vibrational spectrum in small (nanometric) disordered systems. Using numerical simulation and exact diagonalization for simple two-dimensional models, we show that continuum elasticity, applied to these systems, actually breaks down below a length scale of typically 30 to 50 molecular sizes. This length scale …