Related papers: Phase Transformations in Binary Colloidal Monolaye…
Despite the fundamental importance of solid--solid transitions for metallurgy, ceramics, earth science, reconfigurable materials, and colloidal matter, the details of how materials transform between two solid structures are poorly…
We study an air-fluidized granular monolayer, composed of plastic spheres which roll on a metallic grid. The air current is adjusted so that the spheres never loose contact with the grid, so that the dynamics may be regarded as pseudo…
We investigate two-dimensional (2d) melting in the presence of a one-dimensional (1d) periodic potential as, for example, realized in recent experiments on 2d colloids subjected to two interfering laser beams. The topology of the phase…
In the presence of a magnetic field applied perpendicular to a thin sample layer, a suspension of magnetic colloidal particles (ferrofluid) can form spatially modulated phases with a characteristic length determined by the competition…
It is demonstrated by analyzing real examples that phase transitions in layered crystals occur like all other solid-state phase transitions by nucleation and crystal growth, but have a specific morphology. There the nucleation is epitaxial,…
Cholesteric liquid crystals exhibit great morphological richness of static metastable states. Understanding the transitions between such states is key for the development of switchable devices. We show, using a quasi-one-dimensional model,…
We investigate - with Monte Carlo computer simulations - the phase behaviour of dimeric colloidal molecules on periodic substrates with square symmetry. The molecules are formed in a two-dimensional suspension of like charged colloids…
Phase diagrams of binary mixtures of oppositely charged colloids are calculated theoretically. The proposed mean-field-like formalism interpolates between the limits of a hard-sphere system at high temperatures and the colloidal crystals…
Continuum models of plasticity fail to capture the richness of microstructural evolution because the continuum is a homogeneous construction. The present study shows that an alternative way is available at the mesoscale in the form of truly…
Atomically thin 2-dimensional heterostructures are a promising, novel class of materials with groundbreaking properties. The possiblity of choosing the many constituent components and their proportions allows optimizing these materials to…
Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain…
Computer simulations of the fluid-to-solid phase transition in the hard sphere system were instrumental for our understanding of crystallization processes. But while colloid experiments and theory have been predicting the stability of…
Anisotropic particles oriented in a specific direction can act as artificial atoms and molecules, and their controlled assembly can result in a wide variety of ordered structures. Towards this, we demonstrate the orientation transitions of…
Quasicrystals are fascinating structures, characterized by strong positional order but lacking the periodicity of a crystal. In colloidal systems, quasicrystals are typically predicted for particles with complex or highly specific…
Colloidal photonic crystals display peculiar optical properties which make them particularly suitable for application in different fields. However, the low packing fraction of the targeted structures usually poses a real challenge in the…
We investigate the physics of ultracold dipolar molecules using path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations, and construct the complete phase diagram extending from weak to strong interactions and from small to mesoscopic particle…
When a system undergoes a transition from a liquid to a solid phase, it passes through multiple intermediate structures before reaching the final state. However, our knowledge on the exact pathways of this process is limited, mainly due to…
This thesis can be divided into two independent parts. In the first part of this thesis, we focus on studying the kinetic pathways of nucleation in colloidal systems. In Chapter 2, we briefly introduce the relevant theory of nucleation,…
Constant pressure Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse grained off-lattice model for monolayers of amphiphilic molecules at the air/water interface are presented. Our study focusses on phase transitions within a monolayer rather than on self…
Simulations show that sliding bilayers of colloidal particles can exhibit a new phase, the ``melt-freeze'' phase, where the layers stochastically alternate between solidlike and liquidlike states. We introduce a mean field phenomenological…