Filters

The VoroTop modifier in OVITO requires the choice of a filter, which specifies possible structure types and associated Voronoi cell topologies. The modifier calculates the Voronoi cell topology of each particle, uses the provided filter to determine the structure type, and stores the results in the Structure Type particle property.

Each filter is stored in a text-based format. Structure types are specified at the beginning of the file. Subsequent lines specify topological types, as described by Weinberg vectors, and their associated structure types. Files may be saved in compressed (gz) form, which can be processed by OVITO.

Different crystal structures require different filters. A larger collection of filters for 779 materials from the Materials Project is available in the Filter Library. Users can also generate custom filters from crystal structures using the -mf option in VoroTop, or use VoroTypes to deterministically enumerate all possible Voronoi cell topologies for a given crystal structure. See the documentation for details.

Filter name Structure Notes
BCC 1BCC Identifies particles with body-centered cubic (BCC) local structure; ignores all other structure types.
FCC 1FCC Identifies particles with face-centered cubic (FCC) local structure; ignores all other structure types.
HCP 1HCP Identifies particles with hexagonal close-packed (HCP) local structure; ignores all other structure types.
ICOS 1ICOS Identifies particles with icosahedral local structure; ignores all other structure types.
FCC-HCP 1
2
FCC
HCP (non-FCC)
Designed for studying FCC systems with HCP-type defects (e.g., dislocation, twin planes, and stacking faults).
HCP-FCC 1
2
HCP
FCC (non-HCP)
Designed for studying HCP systems with FCC-type defects (e.g., dislocation, twin planes, and stacking faults).
FCC-both-HCP 1
2
3
FCC
FCC/HCP
HCP
Designed to study systems with both FCC and HCP local structure.
FCC-BCC-ICOS-HCP 1
2
3
4
5
FCC
BCC
ICOS
FCC/HCP
HCP
Designed to study general systems which may contain different structures.
B123 1
2
3
4
BCC
B1
B2
B3
Identifies three ∑5 symmetric tilt boundaries in a BCC bicrystal; we (arbitrarily) call them B1, B2, and B3.
Related Publications

A complete list of publications is available on the Documentation page.