Figure 1

Volume per monomer ($v$) and specific heat ($c_p$) versus temperature ($T$). Three peaks in the $c_p\mathrm{\text{−}}T$ curve during heating are marked by the numbers of 1–3 (at $T=0.85$, 0.868, and 0.885, respectively).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(a) Sectional snapshots of whole polymer system and two individual chains during heating. Monomers are colored by its angles (see the color map on the left) and the square edge lines indicate the periodic boundary boxes, which have a little change during heating. At $T=0.7$, there are two main MCDs in our view plane marked by b and c. Ellipses are used to point out the growth of one chain stem. (b) The 3D snapshots of MCD b at $T=0.7$ and 0.88. The surface regions are colored by yellow in which many monomers are in gt states while keep positive bond orientational correlation with the stems in the crystallized region. (c) Sketch for three different definitions of stem length. $d_{\mathrm{tt}}$ is defined by the length of a stem with successive tt states. $d_v$ is defined by the maximum length of extending along a stem without negative correlations of bond vectors. $d_0$ is estimated by the first minimum of intrachain bond orientational correlation function defined by $P_1(k)=⟨{\widehat{b}}_j·{\widehat{b}}_{j+k}{⟩}_j$, where ${\widehat{b}}_j$ is the unit vector of bond vector ${\overrightarrow{b}}_j$ and the average is taken over all bonds.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

(a) Evolutions of the total fraction of tt ($p_{\mathrm{tt}}$), domain sizes ($s_d$), and stem length by three definitions ($d_0$ for total average, $d_v$ and $d_{\mathrm{tt}}$ for MCDs a–d) during heating. The vertical dashed lines marked by numbers are at the same temperatures corresponding to the specific heat peaks shown in Fig. 1. (b) Evolutions during cooling. (c) Evolutions of domain sizes with time if the temperature is kept at $T=0.875$. (d) Relation between temperature and stem lengths in a Gibbs-Thomson-like form. The dashed lines indicate the evolutions during cooling (green) and heating (red).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

Evolution of the static structure factor ($S(q)$) during heating. The inset shows the peak values of $S(q)$ at different $T$.Reuse & Permissions