title: Unusual crystallization kinetics in a hard sphere colloid-polymer mixture.
abstract: We investigated the crystallization kinetics of a hard sphere colloid-polymer mixture at conditions where about 95% of solid coexists with about 5% of fluid. From time resolved Bragg and small angle light scattering, we find that the crystallite size increases with a power law of exponent alpha approximately 1/3 during both the conversion and the coarsening stage. This observation points to a single conserved order parameter for both stages and cannot be explained if the mixture is regarded as an effective one-component system. We alternatively suggest that--based on local geometric demixing--the polymer density takes the role of the conserved order parameter.
authors.affiliation: Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Institut für Physik, Staudingerweg 7, D-55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Palberg
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stipp
authors.forename: Eckhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bartsch