Quantifying the Microstructure of Dried Deposits Using Height-Height Correlation Function

Colloidal self-assembly has garnered significant attention in recent research, owing to applications in medical and engineering domains. Understanding the arrangement of particles in self-assembled systems is crucial for comprehending the underlying physics and synthesizing complex nano- and microscale structures. In this study, we introduce a novel methodology for analyzing the spatial distribution of particles in colloidal assemblies, focusing specifically on quantifying the microstructure of deposits formed by the evaporation of colloidal particle-laden drops. Utilizing a height-height correlation-function-based approach, we quantify variations in the height profile of deposits in radial and azimuthal directions. This approach enables the classification of the patterns into typical examples encountered in an evaporation-driven assembly. The method is demonstrated to be robust for quantifying synthetic and experimentally obtained deposit patterns, exhibiting excellent agreement in the estimated parameters. The mapping developed between pattern morphology and the quantitative measures introduced in this work may be used in a variety of applications including disease diagnosis as well as in developing pattern recognition tools.