Clusters of Polyhedra in Spherical Confinement

Dense particle packing in a confining volume remains largely unexplored, despite its relevance to fields of study as diverse as plasmonics, industrial packaging and transport, colloidal molecule design, blood clotting, and information storage. We report simulation results for dense clusters of the Platonic solids in spherical confinement, for up to N = 60 constituent particles. We discuss the resultant interplay between isotropic geometrical confinement and anisotropic particle shape, classify and compare the symmetry point groups of our clusters, and make an interesting connection to optimal spherical codes. Our results showcase the structural diversity and experimental utility of families of solutions to the problem of packing in confinement.