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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Dimeric and dipolar ground state orders in colloidal molecular crystals
Emmanuel Trizac1, Samir El Shawish, Jure Dobnikar
1Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques(CNRS UMR 8626), Université Paris-Sud, Orsay Cedex, France. trizac@lptms.u-psud.fr
Abstract:
A two-dimensional colloidal suspension subject to a periodic substrate evolves into a colloidal molecular crystal under situations of strong confinement. We focus on the long-range orientational order thereby emerging, in the ground state. We study by simulations the situations where in each trap lies a pair of identical colloids, or alternatively a pair of oppositely charged macroions. We consider square or triangular geometries for the periodic confinement, together with less symmetric distorted lattices.
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