Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 28: Pattern formation in colloidal and granular systems II

DY 28.5: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2009, 11:15–11:30, HÜL 386

Confined colloidal crystals. — Alexander Reinmüller, Ana Barreira Fontecha, Thomas Palberg, and •Hans Joachim Schöpe — Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Institut für Physik, Staudinger Weg 7, 55099 Mainz, Deutschland

The packing of spheres in confined geometry is of both fundamental and practical interest for logistics, mathematics, condensed matter physics, and recently also in colloid science. We study the structural transition of colloidal crystals confined between two plates. Restricting the available space leads to an adaptation of the crystalline bulk structures (bcc, hcp, fcc) to the symmetry of the confinement and a rich variety of structures is found as a function of colloid packing fraction and confinement dimension. We extend former experimental work presenting new exotic crystalline structures having no atomic counterpart. In addition we present first results of bidisperse colloidal crystals in confinement.