Related papers: Ordering of Binary Colloidal Crystals by Random Po…
Using light to control the movement of nano-structured objects is a great challenge. This challenge involves fields like optical tweezing, Casimir forces, integrated optics, bio-physics, and many others. Photonic "robots" could have…
Charged colloidal particles - both on the nano and micron scales - have been instrumental in enhancing our understanding of both atomic and colloidal crystals. These systems can be straightforwardly realized in the lab, and tuned to…
The rheology of dense amorphous materials under large shear strain is not fully understood, partly due to the difficulty of directly viewing the microscopic details of such materials. We use a colloidal suspension to simulate amorphous…
The deposition dynamics of particles (or the growth of a rigid crystal) on a disordered substrate at a finite deposition rate is explored. We begin with an equation of motion which includes, in addition to the disorder, the periodic…
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…
An increasing variety of crystal structures has been observed in soft condensed matter over the past two decades, surpassing most expectations for the diversity of arrangements accessible through classical driving forces. Here, we survey…
In combinatorics, the probabilistic method is a very powerful tool to prove the existence of combinatorial objects with interesting and useful properties. Explicit constructions of objects with such properties are often very difficult, or…
We propose the use of topographic modulation of surfaces to select and localize particles in nematic colloids. By considering convex and concave deformations of one of the confining surfaces we show that the colloid-flat surface repulsion…
By employing Random Matrix Theory (RMT) and first-principle calculations, we investigated the behavior of Anderson localization in 1D, 2D and 3D systems characterized by a varying disorder. In particular, we considered random binary layer…
Confining a colloidal crystal within a long narrow channel produced by two parallel walls can be used to impose a meso-scale superstructure of a predominantly mechanical elastic character [Chui et al., EPL 2008, 83, 58004]. When the crystal…
The manipulation of individual colloidal particles using optical tweezers has allowed vacancies to be created in two-dimensional (2d) colloidal crystals, with unprecedented possibility of real-time monitoring the dynamics of such defects…
We study the formulation of bond-orientational order in an arbitrary two dimensional geometry. We find that bond-orientational order is properly formulated within the framework of differential geometry with torsion. The torsion reflects the…
Fabrication of diamond structures by self-assembly is a fundamental challenge in making three-dimensional photonic crystals. We simulate a system of model hard particles with attractive patches and show that they can self-assemble into a…
Melting of two dimensional (2D) clusters of classical particles is studied using Brownian dynamics and Langevin molecular dynamics simulations. The particles are confined by a circular hard wall or a parabolic external potential and…
Many properties of disordered materials can be understood by looking at idealized structural models, in which the strain is as small as is possible in the absence of long-range order. For covalent amorphous semiconductors and glasses, such…
The development of new materials typically involves a process of trial and error, guided by insights from past experimental and theoretical findings. The inverse design approach for soft-matter systems has the potential to optimize specific…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of crystallization in a supercooled liquid of Lennard-Jones particles with different range of attractions shows that the inclusion of the attractive forces from the first, second and third coordination shell…
A technique for obtaining efficient bulk second order susceptibility in non centro-symmetric Photonic Crystals (PC) made from centro-symmetric materials is discussed. The effect is based on the electric quadrupole effect, strong…
We analyze the phonon spectra of periodic structures formed by two-dimensional mixtures of dipolar colloidal particles. These mixtures display an enormous variety of complex ordered configurations [J. Fornleitner {\it et al.}, Soft Matter…
The random disorder can drastically change the melting scenario of two-dimensional systems and has to be taken into account in the interpretation of the experimental results. We present the results of the molecular dynamics simulations of…