Crystal nuclei and structural correlations in two-dimensional colloidal mixtures: experiment versus simulation

Abstract

We examine binary mixtures of superparamagnetic colloidal particles confined to a two-dimensional water-air interface both by real-space experiments and Monte-Carlo computer simulations at high coupling strength. In the simulations, the interaction is modelled as a pairwise dipole-dipole repulsion. While the ratio of magnetic dipole moments is fixed, the interaction strength governed by the external magnetic field and the relative composition is varied. Excellent agreement between simulation and experiment is found for the partial pair distribution functions including the fine structure of the neighbour shells at high coupling. Furthermore local crystal nuclei in the melt are identified by bond-orientational order parameters and their contribution to the pair structure is discussed.

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• Frank's constant in the hexatic phase
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• Partial Clustering in Binary Two-Dimensional Colloidal Suspensions
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Crystal nucleation as the ordering of multiple order parameters
• Non-classical pathways of crystallization in colloidal systems
• Glass transition of binary mixtures of dipolar particles in two dimensions
• Two-dimensional colloidal mixtures in magnetic and gravitational fields
• Langevin Dynamics simulations of a 2-dimensional colloidal crystal under confinement and shear
• How does a thermal binary crystal break under shear?
• Liquid pair correlations in four spatial dimensions: Theory versus simulation
• Electric field-induced clustering in nanocomposite films of highly polarizable inclusions
• Direct observation of crystal nucleation and growth in a quasi-two-dimensional nonvibrating granular system