title: An experimental and simulation study on the self-assembly of colloidal cubes in external electric fields.
abstract: When a suspension of colloidal particles is placed in an oscillating electric field, the contrast in dielectric constant between the particles and the solvent induces a dipole moment in each of the colloidal particles. The resulting dipole-dipole interactions can strongly influence the phase behavior of the system. We investigate the phase behavior of cube-shaped colloidal particles in electric fields, using both experiments and Monte Carlo simulations. In addition to a string fluid phase and a body centered tetragonal (BCT) crystal phase, we observe a columnar phase consisting of hexagonally ordered strings of rotationally disordered cubes. By simulating the system for a range of pressures and electric field strengths, we map out the phase diagram, and compare the results to the experimentally observed phases. Additionally, we estimate the accuracy of a point-dipole approximation on the alignment of cubes in string-like clusters.
authors.affiliation: Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for NanoMaterials Science, Utrecht University, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands. H.R.Vutukuri@uu.nl A.vanBlaaderen@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Hanumantha Rao
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Vutukuri
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Smallenburg
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Badaire
authors.forename: Arnout
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Imhof
authors.forename: Marjolein
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: Alfons
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Blaaderen