title: Smectic filaments in colloidal suspensions of rods.
abstract: In supersaturated isotropic mixtures of hard rods, smectic filaments have recently been observed. We propose a model for formation and growth of these filaments similar to the Hoffman-Lauritzen model for polymer crystallization. Filament thickness is determined by a compromise between maximizing the amount of smectic phase formed and minimizing the nucleation barrier for adding new segments to the growing filament. We compare our analytical results to kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.
authors.affiliation: FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Daan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Frenkel
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schilling