Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers.
Soft Matter
; 12(37): 7735-46, 2016 Oct 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27477956
ABSTRACT
Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain size parameter. The largest single crystals obtained in experiments consist of approximately 1000 particles and form if the area fraction is held between 65-70% and the field strength is kept in the range of 8.5-10.5 Oe. Simulations indicate that much larger single crystals containing as many as 5000 particles can be obtained under impurity-free conditions within a few hours. If our simulations are modified to include impurity concentrations as small as 1-2%, then the results agree quantitatively with the experiments. These findings provide an important step toward developing strategies for growing single crystals that are large enough to enable follow-on investigations across many subdisciplines in condensed matter physics.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Soft Matter
Año:
2016
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos