title: Crystallization and arrest mechanisms of model colloids.
abstract: We performed dynamic simulations of spheres with short-range attractive interactions for many values of interaction strength and range. Fast crystallization occurs in a localized region of this parameter space, but the character of crystallization pathways is not uniform within this region. Pathways range from one-step, in which a crystal nucleates directly from a gas, to two-step, in which substantial liquid-like clusters form and only subsequently become crystalline. Crystallization can fail because of slow nucleation from either gas or liquid, or because of dynamic arrest caused by strong interactions. Arrested states are characterized by the formation of networks of face-sharing tetrahedra that can be detected by a local common neighbor analysis.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. tomhaxton@gmail.com swhitelam@lbl.gov.
authors.forename: Thomas K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Haxton
authors.affiliation: Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. tomhaxton@gmail.com swhitelam@lbl.gov and Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
authors.forename: Lester O
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Hedges
authors.affiliation: Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. tomhaxton@gmail.com swhitelam@lbl.gov.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whitelam