arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Alfons van Blaaderen.
We use digital holographic microscopy and Mie scattering theory to simultaneously characterize and track individual colloidal particles. Each holographic snapshot provides enough information to measure a colloidal sphere's radius and refractive index to within 1%, and simultaneously to measure its three-dimensional position with nanometer in-plane precision and 10 nanometer axial resolution.
We investigate sedimentation of model hard sphere-like colloidal dispersions confined in horizontal capillaries using laser scanning confocal microscopy, dynamical density functional theory, and Brownian dynamics computer simulations. For homogenized initial states we obtain quantitative agreement of the results from the respective approaches for the time evolution of the one-body density distribution and the osmotic pressure on the walls. We demonstrate that single particle information can be obtained experimentally in systems that were initialized further out-of-equilibrium such that complex lateral patterns form.
We studied the phase behavior of charged and sterically stabilized colloids using confocal microscopy in a less polar solvent (dielectric constant 5.4). Upon increasing the colloid volume fraction we found a transition from a fluid to a body centered cubic crystal at 0.0415+/-0.0005, followed by re-entrant melting at 0.1165+/-0.0015. A second crystal of different symmetry, random hexagonal close-packed, was formed at a volume fraction around 0.5, similar to that of hard spheres. We attribute the intriguing phase behavior to particle interactions that depend strongly on volume fraction, mainly due to changes in the colloid charge. In this low polarity system the colloids acquire charge through ion adsorption. The low ionic strength leads to fewer ions per colloid at elevated volume fractions and consequently a density-dependent colloid charge.