Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 25: Colloids and Complex Liquids I - Structure

CPP 25.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 12:45–13:00, ZEU 222

Computing absolute free energies of 2d colloidal crystals under confinement — •Dorothea Wilms, Peter Virnau, and Kurt Binder — Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz

A two-dimensional colloidal crystal is studied under the confinement of structured and planar walls in one direction. Introducing a misfit by placing the walls closer together leads to a structural transition from n rows to (n-1) rows of crystalline particles and the development of soliton-staircases as the left-over particles (which no longer fit into the crystalline structure if one row disappears) have to distribute themselves in the crystal.

A strong hysteresis is observed at this transition if only the stress is computed. Therefore, we have applied a recently developed method to compute absolute free energies of disordered structures in order to investigate this transition in more detail. Thus we were able to determine the transition point with much higher precision. We have also used the same method in order to compute the interfacial tension of the crystal with the walls.