TY - JOUR
T1 - Helical packings and phase transformations of soft spheres in cylinders
AU - Lohr, M. A.
AU - Alsayed, A. M.
AU - Chen, B. G.
AU - Zhang, Z.
AU - Kamien, R. D.
AU - Yodh, A. G.
PY - 2010/4/13
Y1 - 2010/4/13
N2 - The phase behavior of helical packings of thermoresponsive microspheres inside glass capillaries is studied as a function of the volume fraction. Stable packings with long-range orientational order appear to evolve abruptly to disordered states as the particle volume fraction is reduced, consistent with recent hard-sphere simulations. We quantify this transition using correlations and susceptibilities of the orientational order parameter ψ6. The emergence of coexisting metastable packings, as well as coexisting ordered and disordered states, is also observed. These findings support the notion of phase-transition-like behavior in quasi-one-dimensional systems.
AB - The phase behavior of helical packings of thermoresponsive microspheres inside glass capillaries is studied as a function of the volume fraction. Stable packings with long-range orientational order appear to evolve abruptly to disordered states as the particle volume fraction is reduced, consistent with recent hard-sphere simulations. We quantify this transition using correlations and susceptibilities of the orientational order parameter ψ6. The emergence of coexisting metastable packings, as well as coexisting ordered and disordered states, is also observed. These findings support the notion of phase-transition-like behavior in quasi-one-dimensional systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77951103943&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.81.040401
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.81.040401
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77951103943
SN - 1539-3755
VL - 81
JO - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
JF - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
IS - 4
M1 - 040401
ER -