Abstract
We study a colloidal model system where disorder can be continuously tuned from no disorder --corresponding to a system that can crystallize-- to large disorder where geometrical frustration occurs. The model system consists of colloidal particles with screened electrostatic repulsion. They can only move on single lines which are parallel and equidistant to each other. We introduce disorder by modulating the particle line density. The system exhibits a solid-to-fluid transition which we study by the structure factor and the temporal evolution of the mean-square distance of nearest neighbors on neighboring lines. A determining feature is the occurrence of discontinuities when disorder is tuned to zero. We observe that the peak height of the pair correlation function in the solid phase does not extrapolate to the value of the perfect crystal. Similarly, the mean interaction energy and the screening length at which the solid-fluid transition occurs seem to be discontinuous when the limit of zero disorder is approached.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
R. Moessner, Can. J. Phys. 79, 1283 (2001).
N. Choudhury, L. Walizer, S. Lisenkov, L. Bellaiche, Nature 470, 513 (2011).
L. Pauling, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 57, 2680 (1935).
A.R. Ramirez, Nature 421, 483 (2003).
P.W. Anderson, Science 235, 1196 (1987).
G.H. Wannier, Phys. Rev. 79, 357 (1950).
Y. Han, Y. Shokef, A.M. Alsayed, P. Yunker, T.C. Lubensky, A.G. Yodh, Nature 456, 898 (2008).
A. Libál, C. Reichhardt, C.J. Olson Reichhardt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 228302 (2006).
D.R. Nelson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 982 (1983).
C.D. Modes, R.D. Kamien, Phys. Rev. E 77, 041125 (2008).
C. Das, H.R. Krishnamurthy, Phys. Rev. B 58, R5889 (1998).
M. Schmiedeberg, J. Roth, H. Stark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 158304 (2006).
L.S. Levitov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 224 (1991).
D.J. Bishop, P.L. Gammel, D.A. Huse, C.A. Murray, Science 255, 165 (1992).
Q. Lu, C.J. Olson Reichhardt, C. Reichhardt, Phys. Rev. B 75, 054502 (2007).
A. Chowdhury, B.J. Ackerson, N.A. Clark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 833 (1985).
Q.-H. Wei, C. Bechinger, D. Rudhardt, P. Leiderer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2606 (1998).
J. Chakrabarti, H.R. Krishnamurthy, A.K. Sood, S. Sengupta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 2232 (1995).
C. Bechinger, M. Brunner, P. Leiderer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 930 (2001).
E. Frey, D.R. Nelson, L. Radzihovsky, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2977 (1999).
L. Radzihovsky, E. Frey, D.R. Nelson, Phys. Rev. E 63, 031503 (2001).
J. Hu, R.M. Westervelt, Phys. Rev. B 55, 771 (1997).
J. Baumgartl, M. Brunner, C. Bechinger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 168301 (2004).
B.V. Derjaguin, L. Landau, Acta Physicochim. (USSR) 14, 633 (1941).
E.J. Verwey, J.T.G. Overbeek, Theory of the Stability of Lyophobic Colloids (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1948).
D.G. Levitt, Phys. Rev. A 8, 3050 (1973).
M. Kollmann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 180602 (2003).
Q.-H. Wei, C. Bechinger, P. Leiderer, Science 287, 625 (2004).
A. Ghosh, V.K. Chikkadi, P. Schall, J. Kurchan, D. Bonn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 248305 (2010).
K. Chen, W.G. Ellenbroek, Z. Zhang, D.T.N. Chen, P. Yunker, S. Henkes, C. Brito, O. Dauchot, W. van Saarloos, A.J. Liu, A.G. Yodh, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 025501 (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Richter, C., Schmiedeberg, M. & Stark, H. A colloidal model system with tunable disorder: Solid-fluid transition and discontinuities in the limit of zero disorder. Eur. Phys. J. E 34, 107 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2011-11107-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2011-11107-7