Field-induced self-assembly of suspended colloidal membranes.
We report experiments that probe the self-assembly of micrometer-size colloids into one-particle-thick, robust, and self-healing membranes. In a magic-angle precessing magnetic field, superparamagnetic spheres experience isotropic pair attraction similar to the van der Waals force between atoms. But the many-body polarization interactions among them steer an ordered aggregation pathway consisting of growth of short chains, cross-linking and network formation, network coarsening, and consolidation of membrane patches. This generic aggregation scenario can be induced in any particles of large enough susceptibility.
Osterman
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Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Poberaj
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I
Dobnikar
J
J
Frenkel
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D
Ziherl
P
P
Babić
D
D