Related papers: Ordering of Binary Colloidal Crystals by Random Po…
Periodically structured materials can sustain both optical and mechanical excitations which are tailored by the geometry. Here we analyze the properties of dispersively coupled planar photonic and phononic crystals: optomechanical crystals.…
The physics of two-dimensional (2D) materials and heterostructures based on such crystals has been developing extremely fast. With new 2D materials, truly 2D physics has started to appear (e.g. absence of long-range order, 2D excitons,…
Manipulating the way in which colloidal particles self-organise is a central challenge in the design of functional soft materials. Meeting this challenge requires the use of building blocks that interact with one another in a highly…
Most binary superlattices created using DNA functionalization or other approaches rely on particle size differences to achieve compositional order and structural diversity. Here we study two-dimensional (2D) assembly of DNA-functionalized…
Structures with artificial mechanical properties, often called mechanical metamaterials, exhibit divergent yet tunable performance. Various types of mechanical metamaterials have been proposed, which harness light or magnetic interactions,…
Exploring structural order in disordered systems including liquids and glasses is an intriguing but challenging issue in condensed matter physics. Here we construct a new parameter based on the angular distribution function of particles and…
A fundamental characteristic of matter is its ability to form ordered structures under the right thermodynamic conditions. Predicting these structures - and their properties - from the attributes of a material's building blocks is the holy…
By combining computer simulations and a unit cell model approach, we study the apparent bimodality of local structural ordering in a system of confined hard disks. It is shown that a two-dimensional (2D) array of hard disks confined…
The kinetic mechanisms underlying bottom-up assembly of colloidal particles have been widely investigated in efforts to control crystallization pathways and to direct growth into targeted superstructures for applications including photonic…
From self-assembly and protein folding to combinatorial metamaterials, a key challenge in material design is finding the right combination of interacting building blocks that yield targeted properties. Such structures are fiendishly…
Recent progress in colloidal science has led to elaborate self-assembled structures whose complexity raises hopes for elaborating new materials. However, the throughputs are extremely low and consequently, the chance to produce materials of…
We demonstrate the effect of introducing controlled disorder in self-assembled three-dimensional photonic crystals. Disorders are induced through controlling the self-assembling process using an electrolyte of specific concentrations.…
There is growing interest in functional, adaptive devices built from colloidal subunits of micron size or smaller. A colloidal material with dynamic mechanical properties could facilitate such microrobotic machines. Here we study via…
We study theoretically a binary system in which an attraction of unlike particles is combined with a type-independent soft core repulsion. The possible experimental implementation of the system is a mixture of DNA-covered colloids, in which…
Crystal structures can be viewed as assemblies of space-filling polyhedra, which play a critical role in determining material properties such as ionic conductivity and dielectric constant. However, most conventional crystal structure…
Using computer simulations, we explore how thermal noise-induced randomness in a self-assembled photonic crystal affects its photonic band gaps (PBGs). We consider a two-dimensional photonic crystal comprised of a self-assembled array of…
Monodisperse suspensions of Brownian colloidal spheres crystallize at high densities, and ordering under shear has been observed at densities below the crystallization threshold. We perform large-scale simulations of a model suspension…
Colloids play an important role in fundamental science as well as in nature and technology. They have had a strong impact on the fundamental understanding of statistical physics. For example, colloids have helped to obtain a better…
A colloidal dispersion droplet evaporating from a surface, such as a drying coffee drop, leaves a distinct ring-shaped stain. Although this mechanism is frequently used for particle self-assembly, the conditions for crystallization have…
Many physical systems involve two types of orientational order, which are coupled together. For example, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals have coupled polar and nematic order, and tilted hexatic phases have coupled polar and hexatic…