Rebecca Christianson – Harvard University
“Crystallization of Two-Component Colloidal Mixtures”
When two different sizes of hard-sphere colloid are mixed together, the particles can crystallize into a joint structure. The kinetics of the formation of this structure will be affected by the stoichiometry of the system. This can provide a model for crystallization of two-component atomic systems. In addition, the variety of true three-dimensional crystal structures which form in the binaries greatly expands the structures available for photonic applications. I will present data from confocal microscopy of density-matched samples, as well as scattering data on index-matched samples from the International Space Station to elucidate the kinetics of crystallization in binary colloids.