title: How do polydisperse repulsive colloids crystallize?
abstract: A modified version of the Gibbs-ensemble Monte-Carlo method reveals how polydisperse charged colloidal particles can build complex colloidal crystals. It provides general rules that are applicable to this fractionated crystallization that stems from size segregation. It explains the spontaneous formation of complex crystals with very large unit-cells in suspensions of nanoparticles with a broad size distribution.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS UMR8502, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France. robert.botet@u-psud.fr.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Botet
authors.affiliation: LCMD, CNRS UMR 8231, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cabane
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goehring
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique, CNRS UMR 6626, Univ. Rennes, 35042 Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Artzner