title: Crystallization and reentrant melting of charged colloids in nonpolar solvents.
abstract: We explore the crystallization of charged colloidal particles in a nonpolar solvent mixture. We simultaneously charge the particles and add counterions to the solution with aerosol-OT (AOT) reverse micelles. At low AOT concentrations, the charged particles crystallize into body-centered-cubic (bcc) or face-centered-cubic (fcc) Wigner crystals; at high AOT concentrations, the increased screening drives a thus far unobserved reentrant melting transition. We observe an unexpected scaling of the data with particle size, and account for all behavior with a model that quantitatively predicts both the reentrant melting and the data collapse.
authors: Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: Toshimitsu
authors: T
authors: Kanai
authors: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, 3584 CE Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: Niels
authors: N
authors: Boon
authors: Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Lu
authors: Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: Eli
authors: E
authors: Sloutskin
authors: The School of Physics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom.
authors: Andrew B
authors: AB
authors: Schofield
authors: Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Smallenburg
authors: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, 3584 CE Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: René
authors: R
authors: van Roij
authors: Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors: Marjolein
authors: M
authors: Dijkstra
authors: Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Weitz