Ultrafast quenching of binary colloidal suspensions in an external magnetic field.
An ultrafast quench is applied to binary mixtures of superparamagnetic colloidal particles confined at a two-dimensional water-air interface by a sudden increase of an external magnetic field. This quench realizes a virtually instantaneous cooling which is impossible in molecular systems. Using real-space experiments, the relaxation behavior after the quench is explored. Local crystallites with triangular and square symmetry are formed on different time scales, and the correlation peak amplitude of the small particles evolves nonmonotonically in time in agreement with Brownian dynamics computer simulations.
Assoud
Lahcen
L
Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Ebert
Florian
F
Keim
Peter
P
Messina
René
R
Maret
Georg
G
Löwen
Hartmut
H