title: Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers.
abstract: Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain size parameter. The largest single crystals obtained in experiments consist of approximately 1000 particles and form if the area fraction is held between 65-70% and the field strength is kept in the range of 8.5-10.5 Oe. Simulations indicate that much larger single crystals containing as many as 5000 particles can be obtained under impurity-free conditions within a few hours. If our simulations are modified to include impurity concentrations as small as 1-2%, then the results agree quantitatively with the experiments. These findings provide an important step toward developing strategies for growing single crystals that are large enough to enable follow-on investigations across many subdisciplines in condensed matter physics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Box 90300 Hudson Hall, Durham, NC 27708, USA. yellen@duke.edu.
authors.forename: An T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.forename: Ryohei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schönke
authors.forename: Daniel Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Joh
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chilkoti
authors.forename: Eliot
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fried
authors.forename: Benjamin B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Yellen