Exploiting Shape-sensitive Interactions in Colloidal Suspensions - From Directed Self-assembly to Structural Glasses
Colloidal suspensions comprise of micrometer-sized particles that remain suspended in a fluid by Brownian motion. Their large size, typically a micron, allows for the investigation of dynamics at the single-particle level using relatively simple tabletop experimental techniques. This feature combined with the tunability of particle shape and interactions makes them promising candidates to address a plethora of problems in statistical mechanics and condensed matter. Apart from their role as model systems, periodic arrangements of colloidal particles have typical lattice spacing comparable to the wavelength of visible light. Thus, colloidal crystals Bragg-scatter visible light and this feature is exploited in the design of photonic band-gap and optoelectronic devices.
In my talk, I will describe recent results from our group that exploit the shape-sensitive nature of attractive depletion interactions to address issues in colloidal self-assembly and structural glasses [1-5].
1. Chandan K Mishra, A K Sood and Rajesh Ganapathy, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 12094 (2016)
2. Shreyas Gokhale, A K Sood and Rajesh Ganapathy, Advances in Physics 65, 363 (2016)
3. Chandan K Mishra and Rajesh Ganapathy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 198302 (2015)
4. Chandan K Mishra, Hima K Nagamanasa, Rajesh Ganapathy, A K Sood and Shreyas Gokhale, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 15362 (2014)
5. Chandan K Mishra, Amritha Rangarajan and Rajesh Ganapathy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 188301 (2013)
