Dynamical instability in driven colloids

Author: Chakrabarti J.   Dzubiella J.   Löwen H.  

Publisher: Edp Sciences

E-ISSN: 1286-4854|61|3|415-421

ISSN: 0295-5075

Source: EPL (EUROPHYSICS LETTERS), Vol.61, Iss.3, 2010-03, pp. : 415-421

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Abstract

Brownian-dynamics computer simulations show a dynamical crossoverin a strongly interacting colloidal suspension consisting ofoppositely driven particles, wherein a uniform state transforms,with increasing driving force, into a locally demixed statecharacterized by strongly anisotropic stripe-like domains whichare homogeneous in the direction parallel to the drive but havefinite spatial extent of a double-correlation length in thetransverse direction. A phenomenological dynamicdensity-functional theory has been proposed which accounts forsuch a strongly anisotropic state as arising from an instabilityof a homogeneous state.