Colloidal dynamics on disordered substrates

Using Langevin simulations, we examine driven colloids interacting with quenched disorder. For weak substrates the colloids form an ordered state and depin elastically. For increasing substrate strength, we find a sharp crossover to inhomogeneous depinning and a substantial increase in the depinning force, analogous to the peak effect in superconductors. The velocity versus driving force curve shows criticality at depinning, with a change in scaling exponent occurring at the order to disorder crossover. Upon application of a sudden pulse of driving force, pronounced transients appear in the disordered regime which are due to the formation of long-lived colloidal flow channels.     

Moving Wigner glasses and smectics: dynamics of disordered Wigner crystals

We examine the dynamics of driven classical Wigner solids interacting with quenched disorder from charged impurities. For strong disorder, the initial motion is plastic, in the form of crossing winding channels. For increasing drive, there is a reordering into a moving Wigner smectic with the electrons moving in separate 1D channels. These different dynamic phases can be related to the conduction noise and I(V) curves. For strong disorder, we show criticality in the voltage onset just above depinning. We obtain the dynamic phase diagram for driven Wigner solids and demonstrate a finite threshold of force for transverse sliding, recently observed experimentally.     

Structure and fragmentation in colloidal artificial molecules and nuclei

Motivated by recent experiments on colloidal systems with competing attractive and repulsive interactions, we simulate a two-dimensional system of colloids with competing interactions that can undergo fragmentation. In the absence of any other confining potential, the colloids can form stable clusters depending on the strength of the short range attractive term. By suddenly changing the strength of one of the interaction terms we find a rich variety of fragmentation behavior which is affected by the existence of “magic” cluster numbers. Such soft matter systems can be used to construct artificial nuclei.     

Templated assembly of organic-inorganic materials using the core shell structure of the P22 bacteriophage

Biomimetic chemistry offers new approaches to supramolecular materials synthesis and assembly. We have demonstrated that an assembled viral protein cage, comprising an organic core-shell structure, can be used as a template for the size constrained synthesis of Fe(2)O(3). Particle nucleation is directed by the inner scaffold protein layer, while the size constraints are determined by the outer capsid layer.     

Realizing colloidal artificial ice on arrays of optical traps

We demonstrate how a colloidal version of artificial ice can be realized on optical trap lattices. Using numerical simulations, we show that this system obeys the ice rules and that for strong colloid-colloid interactions, an ordered ground state appears. We show that the ice-rule ordering can occur for systems with as few as 24 traps and that the ordering transition can be observed at constant temperature by varying the barrier strength of the traps.