English

Low-density crystals in charged colloids : Comparison with Yukawa theory

Soft Condensed Matter 2015-06-23 v1

Abstract

Charged colloids can behave as Yukawa systems, with similar phase behaviour. Using particle- resolved studies, we consider a system with an unusually long Debye screening length which forms crystals at low colloid volume fraction {\phi} ~ 0.01. We quantitatively compare this system with the Yukawa model and find that its freezing point is compatible with the theoretical prediction but that the crystal polymorph is not always that expected. In particular we find body-centred cubic crystals where face-centred cubic crystals are expected.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1501.01795,
  title  = {Low-density crystals in charged colloids : Comparison with Yukawa theory},
  author = {Ioatzin Ríos de Anda and Antonia Statt and Francesco Turci and C. Patrick Royall},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.01795},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

To appear in the special issue of Contributions to Plasma Physics for Strongly Coupled Coulomb Systems 2014