Related papers: Ordering and Melting in Colloidal Molecular Crysta…
We employ extensive NPT molecular dynamics simulations to explore the thermal transitions of two-dimensional colloidal crystals interacting via a core-softened potential with competing length scales. The system stabilizes three distinct…
Microcanonical Monte Carlo simulations of a polydisperse soft-spheres model for liquids and colloids have been performed for very large polydispersity, in the region where a phase-separation is known to occur when the system (or part of it)…
We investigate the behavior of colloidal suspensions with different volume fractions confined between parallel walls under a range of steady shears. We model the particles using molecular dynamics (MD) with full hydrodynamic interactions…
Melting of two-dimensional (2D) equilibrium crystals, from superconducting vortex lattices to colloidal structures, is a complex phenomenon characterized by the sequential loss of positional and orientational order. Whereas melting…
We present results of Monte-Carlo simulations for finite 2D single and bilayer systems. Strong Coulomb correlations lead to arrangement of particles in configurations resembling a crystal lattice. For binary layers, there exists a…
Polymers with both soluble and insoluble blocks typically self-assemble into micelles, aggregates of a finite number of polymers where the soluble blocks shield the insoluble ones from contact with the solvent. Upon increasing…
We study the equilibrium arrangements of polarization vortices in (PbTiO$_3$)$_n$/(SrTiO$_3$)$_n$ superlattices by means of second-principles simulations. We find that, at low temperatures, polarization vortices organize in a regular…
The development of high-performance materials for microelectronics, energy storage, and extreme environments depends on our ability to describe and direct property-defining microstructural order. Our present understanding is typically…
A spacetime crystal is a phase of matter that spontaneously develops periodic order in both space and time. Spacetime crystals have been experimentally observed in microscopic quantum many-body systems and, very recently, in a mesoscopic…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
For the study of crystal formation and dynamics we introduce a simple two-dimensional monatomic model system with a parametrized interaction potential. We find in molecular dynamics simulations that a surprising variety of crystals, a…
Efficient heuristics have predicted many functional materials such as high-temperature superconducting hydrides, while inorganic structural chemistry explains why and how the crystal structures are stabilized. Here we develop the paired…
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 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…
The melting of a binary system of charged particles confined in a {\it quasi}-one-dimensional parabolic channel is studied through Monte Carlo simulations. At zero temperature the particles are ordered in parallel chains. The melting is…
Colloidal suspensions are simple model systems for the study of phase transitions. Video microscopy is capable of directly imaging the structure and dynamics of colloidal suspensions in different phases. Recent results related to…
We present an improved model for studying the interactions between dipole moments of water molecules confined in beryl crystals, inspired by recent NMR experiments. Our model is based on a local crystal potential with dihexagonal symmetry…
The geometric shape, symmetry, and topology of colloidal particles often allow for controlling colloidal phase behavior and physical properties of these soft matter systems. In liquid crystalline dispersions, colloidal particles with low…
The rapid progress in precisely designing the surface decoration of patchy colloidal particles offers a new, yet unexperienced freedom to create building entities for larger, more complex structures in soft matter systems. However, it is…
Colloidal particles are not simple rigid particles, in general an isolated particle is a system with many degrees of freedom in its own right, e.g., the counterions around a charged colloidal particle.The behaviour of model colloidal…