Related papers: Ordering of Binary Colloidal Crystals by Random Po…
We investigate two-dimensional crystal assemblies formed by a binary mixture of colloidal particles with a size ratio of 0.88 and driven by short-ranged depletion interactions. Our experiments show that the orientational order of the…
Spatial ordering of matter elicits exotic properties sometimes absent from a material's constituents. A few highly mineralised natural materials achieve high toughness through delocalised damage, whereas synthetic particulate composites…
Mutually repelling particles form spontaneously ordered clusters when forced into confinement. The clusters may adopt similar spatial arrangements even if the underlying particle interactions are contrastingly different. Here we demonstrate…
Autonomous materials discovery with desired properties is one of the ultimate goals for materials science, and the current studies have been focusing mostly on high-throughput screening based on density functional theory calculations and…
A binary system of classical charged particles interacting through a dipole repulsive potential and confined in a two-dimensional hardwall trap is studied by Brownian dynamics simulations. We found that the presence of small particles…
Crystals are a state of matter characterised by periodic order. Yet crystalline materials can harbour disorder in many guises, such as non-repeating variations in composition, atom displacements, bonding arrangements, molecular…
Complex crystal structures are composed of multiple local environments, and how this type of order emerges spontaneously during crystal growth has yet to be fully understood. We study crystal growth across various structures and along…
Colloidal particles dispersed in liquid crystals can form new materials with tunable elastic and electro-optic properties. In a periodic `blue phase' host, particles should template into colloidal crystals with potential uses in photonics,…
The creation of disordered hyperuniform materials with potentially extraordinary optical properties requires a capacity to synthesize large samples that are effectively hyperuniform down to the nanoscale. Motivated by this challenge, we…
The ability to control forces between sub-micron-scale building blocks offers considerable potential for designing new materials through self-assembly. A typical paradigm is to first identify a particular (crystal) structure that has some…
Colloidal particles were exposed to a random potential energy landscape (rPEL) that has been created optically via a speckle pattern. The mean particle density as well as the potential roughness, i.e. the disorder strength, were varied. The…
We theoretically show how two impurity defects in a crystalline structure can be entangled through coupling with the crystal. We demonstrate this with a harmonic chain of trapped ions in which two ions of a different species are embedded.…
The behavior of identical particles interacting through the harmonic-repulsive pair potential has been studied in 3D using molecular dynamics simulations at a number of different densities. We found that at many densities, as the…
Colloidal crystal structures with complexity and diversity rivaling atomic and molecular crystals have been predicted and obtained for hard particles by entropy maximization. However, so far homochiral colloidal crystals, which are…
Photonic crystals with a sufficiently high refractive index contrast display partial or full band gaps. However, imperfections in the metamaterial cause light scattering and extinction of the interfering propagating waves. Positive as well…
Colloidal systems find important applications ranging from fabrication of photonic crystals to direct probing of phenomena typically encountered in atomic crystals and glasses. New applications - such as nanoantennas, plasmonic sensors, and…
Disorder in crystals is rarely random, and instead involves local correlations whose presence and nature are hidden from conventional crystallographic probes. This hidden order can sometimes be controlled, but its importance for physical…
The complex physics of self-assembly in colloidal crystals on deformable interfaces and surfaces poses interesting possibilities for the designability and synthesis of next-generation metamaterials. The goal of this article is to…
The freezing of colloidal suspensions is encountered in many natural and engineering processes. It can be harnessed through a process known as ice templating, to produce porous materials and composites exhibiting unique functional…
We report an experimental study of the elastic properties of a two-dimensional (2D) colloidal crystal subjected to light-induced substrate potentials. In agreement with recent theoretical predictions [H.H. von Gruenberg and J. Baumgartl,…