Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Statics and dynamics of 2D colloidal crystals in a random pinning potential
Alexandros Pertsinidis1, Xinsheng Sean Ling
1Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
Abstract:
We report the first experimental study of a model system of a two-dimensional colloidal crystal in a random pinning potential. The colloidal crystal consists of monodispersed charged polystyrene microspheres suspended in deionized aqueous media and confined near a rough charged surface. It is found that the static orientational correlation function g6(r) decays exponentially for intermediate and strong pinning, in agreement with theories. The driven depinning is dominated by thermally activated creep motion along 1D-like channels between regions with short-range order. A coexistence model is proposed for describing the observations.
Related Concept Videos
The Colloidal State
First Law: Particles in Two-dimensional Equilibrium
Newton's first law tells us about the...
First Law: Particles in One-dimensional Equilibrium
Colloids and Suspensions
Equilibrium Conditions for a Particle
To understand the concept of equilibrium, let us first consider the forces acting on an object. When different forces act on an object, they can...
Static Equilibrium - II

