Related papers: Bistable colloidal orientation near a charged surf…
Freezing of charged colloids on square or triangular two-dimensional periodic substrates has been recently shown to realize a rich variety of orientational orders. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze the corresponding structures.…
We examine the translation and rotation of an uncharged spheroidal colloid in polar solvents (water) near a charged flat surface. We solve the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation outside of the colloid in two dimensions for all tilt angles…
We study a dynamical model of a rod-like particle surrounded by a cloud of smaller particles of the same charge and we show that, in the presence of a low-frequency alternating electric field, the rod displays the same type of anomalous…
Field-induced reorientation of colloidal particles is especially relevant to manipulate the optical properties of a nanomaterial for target applications. We have recently shown that surprisingly feeble external stimuli are able to transform…
For particles confined to two dimensions, any curvature of the surface affects the structural, kinetic and thermodynamic properties of the system. If the curvature is non-uniform, an even richer range of behaviours can emerge. Using a…
A class of bistable "stator-rotor" molecules is proposed, where a stationary bridge (stator) connects the two electrodes and facilitates electron transport between them. The rotor part, which has a large dipole moment, is attached to an…
We study how dispersions of colloidal particles in a cholesteric liquid crystal behave under a time-dependent electric field. By controlling the amplitude and shape of the applied field wave, we show that the system can be reproducibly…
Phase transformations can be difficult to characterize at the microscopic level due to the inability to directly observe individual atomic motions. Model colloidal systems, by contrast, permit the direct observation of individual particle…
We study the behavior of negatively charged colloids with two positively charged polar caps close to a planar patterned surface. The competition between the different anisotropic components of the particle-particle interaction patterns is…
We present a one dimensional model for the nonlinear response of a colloidal crystal to intense light illumination along a high symmetry direction. The strong coupling between light and the colloidal lattice, via the electric gradient force…
Monopole-like electrostatic interactions are ubiquitous in biology and condensed matter, but they are often screened by counter-ions and cannot be switched from attractive to repulsive. In colloidal science, where the prime goal is to…
Two-dimensional colloidal suspensions exposed to periodic external fields exhibit a variety of molecular crystalline phases. There two or more colloids assemble at lattice sites of potential minima to build new structural entities, referred…
Nematic shells are colloidal particles coated with nematic liquid crystal molecules which may freely glide and rotate on the colloid's surface while keeping their long axis on the local tangent plane. We describe the nematic order on a…
The ground state of colloidal magnetic particles in a modulated channel are investigated as function of the tilt angle of an applied magnetic field. The particles are confined by a parabolic potential in the transversal direction while in…
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…
Placing colloidal particles in predesigned sites represents a major challenge of the current state-of-the-art colloidal science. Nematic liquid crystals with spatially varying director patterns represent a promising approach to achieve a…
We study analytically the dynamics of an anisotropic particle subjected to different stochastic resetting schemes in two dimensions. The Brownian motion of shape-asymmetric particles in two dimensions results in anisotropic diffusion at…
We show that colloidal molecular crystal states interacting with a periodic substrate, such as an optical trap array, and a rotating external field can undergo a rapid pattern switching in which the orientation of the crystal changes. In…
A model predicting the structure of repulsive, spherically symmetric, monodisperse particles confined between two walls is presented. We study the buckling transition of a single flat layer as the double layer state develops. Experimental…
We reversibly switch the polar environment of an individual magnetic atom with an electric field to control the energy barrier for reversal of magnetization. By applying an electric field in the gap between the tip and sample of a scanning…