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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Observation of condensed phases of quasiplanar core-softened colloids
N Osterman1, D Babic, I Poberaj
1Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
We experimentally study the condensed phases of repelling core-softened spheres in two dimensions. The dipolar pair repulsion between superparamagnetic spheres trapped in a thin cell is induced by a transverse magnetic field and softened by suitably adjusting the cell thickness. We scan a broad density range and we materialize a large part of the theoretically predicted phases in systems of core-softened particles, including expanded and close-packed hexagonal, square, chainlike, stripe or labyrinthine, and honeycomb phase. Further insight into their structure is provided by Monte Carlo simulations.
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