Stable equidistant step trains during crystallization of insulin |
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Authors: | Gliko Olga Reviakine Ilya Vekilov Peter G |
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Affiliation: | Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA. |
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Abstract: | Bunching of growth steps plagues layerwise crystallization of materials in laboratory, industrial, and geological environments, and theory predicts that equidistant step trains are unstable under a variety of conditions. Searching for an example of stable equidistant step trains, we monitored the generation and spatiotemporal evolution of step trains on length scales from 100 nm to 1 mm during the crystallization of insulin, using atomic force microscopy and phase-shifting interferometry. We show that near-equidistant step trains are generated by single and cooperating screw dislocation. The lack of step-step interaction and the overall transport-controlled growth regime further regularize the step train and ensure the stability of the obtained equidistant arrangement. |
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