title: Glassy dynamics, spinodal fluctuations, and the kinetic limit of nucleation in suspensions of colloidal hard rods.
abstract: Using simulations we identify three dynamic regimes in supersaturated isotropic fluid states of short hard rods: (i) for moderate supersaturations, we observe nucleation of multilayered crystalline clusters; (ii) at higher supersaturation, we find nucleation of small crystallites which arrange into long-lived locally favored structures that get kinetically arrested; and (iii) at even higher supersaturation, the dynamic arrest is due to the conventional cage-trapping glass transition. For longer rods we find that the formation of the (stable) smectic phase out of a supersaturated isotropic state is strongly suppressed by an isotropic-nematic spinodal instability that causes huge spinodal-like orientation fluctuations with nematic clusters diverging in size. Our results show that glassy dynamics and spinodal instabilities set kinetic limits to nucleation in highly supersaturated hard-rod fluids.
authors.affiliation: Soft Condensed Matter, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Belli
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Roij
authors.forename: Marjolein
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dijkstra