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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Rotation in suspension of a rod-shaped colloid
Liang Hong1, Stephen M Anthony, Steve Granick
1Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
The simple strategy of coating a closely packed colloid monolayer with a nanometer-thick metal film to connect colloidal spheres and then gently sonicating produces a series of colloid metastructures, including rods and planar sheets. These structures can be fluorescently labeled, which can serve as a probe to monitor their dynamics in complex environments. The metal coating modulates fluorescence emission as these structures rotate in suspension. By analyzing the time sequence of fluorescence images using single-particle tracking techniques, here we measure the rotational dynamics of a rodlike tetramer, quantifying rotation along the long axis.
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