Colloidal crystal growth at externally imposed nucleation clusters

Abstract

We study the conditions under which and how an imposed cluster of fixed colloidal particles at prescribed positions triggers crystal nucleation from a metastable colloidal fluid. Dynamical density functional theory of freezing and Brownian dynamics simulations are applied to a two-dimensional colloidal system with dipolar interactions. The externally imposed nucleation clusters involve colloidal particles either on a rhombic lattice or along two linear arrays separated by a gap. Crystal growth occurs after the peaks of the nucleation cluster have first relaxed to a cutout of the stable bulk crystal.

4 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (2)

• Lane reduction in driven 2d-colloidal systems through microchannels
• Density functional theory of freezing for soft interactions in two dimensions

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Derivation of the phase field crystal model for colloidal solidification
• Crystallization of magnetic dipolar monolayers: a density functional approach