Related papers: Local Melting and Drag for a Particle Driven Throu…
We examine the dynamics of a single colloidal particle driven through a colloidal lattice which can distort in response to the driven particle. We find a remarkably rich variety of dynamical locking phenomena as we vary the angle of the…
Sublattice melting is the loss of order of one lattice component in binary or ternary ionic crystals upon increase in temperature. A related transition has been predicted in colloidal crystals. To understand the nature of this transition,…
We simulate a colloidal particle (radius R) in a cholesteric liquid crystal (pitch p) with tangential order parameter alignment at the particle surface. The local defect structure evolves from a dipolar pair of surface defects (boojums) at…
Metals owe their unique mechanical properties to how defects emerge and propagate within their crystal structure under stress. However, the mechanisms leading from the early emerging (local) defects to the amplification of dislocations…
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…
In complex crystals close to melting or at finite temperatures, different types of defects are ubiquitous and their role becomes relevant in the mechanical response of these solids. Conventional elasticity theory fails to provide a…
We find that laser-induced local melting attracts and deforms grain boundaries in 2D colloidal crystals. When a melted region in contact with the edge of a crystal grain recrystallizes, it deforms the grain boundary --- this attraction is…
Bitter decoration and magneto-optical studies reveal that in heavy-ion irradiated superconductors, a 'porous' vortex matter is formed when vortices outnumber columnar defects (CDs). In this state ordered vortex crystallites are embedded in…
In superionic compounds one component pre-melts providing high ionic conductivity to solid state electrolytes. Here, we find sublattice melting in colloidal crystals of oppositely charged particles that are highly asymmetric in size and…
Defects in the atomic lattice of solids are sometimes desired. For example, atomic vacancies, single ones or more elaborated defective structures, can generate localized magnetic moments in a non magnetic crystalline lattice. Increasing…
Colloidal gels are a prototypical example of a heterogeneous network solid whose complex properties are governed by thermally-activated dynamics. In this Letter we experimentally establish the connection between the intermittent dynamics of…
We consider the unidirectional particle transport in a suspension of colloidal particles which interact with each other via a pair potential having a hard-core repulsion plus an attractive tail. The colloids are confined within a long…
Colloidal crystals formed by size-asymmetric binary particles co-assemble into a wide variety of colloidal compounds with lattices akin to ionic crystals. Recently, a transition from a compound phase with a sublattice of small particles to…
The non-equilibrium distribution of colloids in a polymer solution under a temperature gradient is studied experimentally. A slight increase of local temperature by a focused laser drives the colloids towards the hot region, resulting in…
We develop an electrokinetic technique that continuously manipulates colloidal particles to concentrate into patterned particulate groups in an energy efficient way, by exclusive harnessing of the intrinsic Joule heating effects. Our…
The configurational and melting properties of large two-dimensional clusters of charged classical particles interacting with each other via the Coulomb potential are investigated through the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The particles…
We study by simulation the physics of two colloidal particles in a cholesteric liquid crystal with tangential order parameter alignment at the particle surface. The effective force between the pair is attractive at short range and favors…
Colloidal particles in a liquid crystal (LC) behave very differently from their counterparts in isotropic fluids. Elastic nature of the orientational order and surface anchoring of the director cause long-range anisotropic interactions and…
We propose a novel actuation mechanism for colloids, which is based on the Seebeck effect of the electrolyte solution: Laser heating of a nonionic particle accumulates in its vicinity a net charge Q, which is proportional to the excess…
Phonon scattering calculations predict the drag force acting on defects and dislocations rises linearly with temperature, in direct contradiction with molecular dynamics simulations that often finds the drag force to be independent of…