title: The role of shear in crystallization kinetics: From suppression to enhancement.
abstract: In many technical applications crystallization proceeds in the presence of stresses and flows, hence the importance to understand the crystallization mechanism in simple situations. We employ molecular dynamics simulations to study the crystallization kinetics of a nearly hard sphere liquid that is weakly sheared. We demonstrate that shear flow both enhances and suppresses the crystallization kinetics of hard spheres. The effect of shear depends on the quiescent mechanism: suppression in the activated regime and enhancement in the diffusion-limited regime for small strain rates. At higher strain rates crystallization again becomes an activated process even at densities close to the glass transition.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7-9, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7-9, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Speck