Abstract
Hard sphere crystal growth is a delicate interplay between kinetics and thermodynamics, where the
former is commonly thought to favour a random hexagonal close packed structure and the latter leads
to a face centered cubic crystal. In this article, we discuss the influence of slanted stacking faults on the
growth of sedimentary colloidal crystals from dispersions with high initial volume fraction and particles
that sediment relatively fast. We find that the presence of these persisting faults locally induces fcc
structure, while defect free regions form rhcp crystals as expected for a system where kinetics dominate.
These results are promising for use in epitaxial growth of colloidal crystals, where proper templating
could lead to almost perfect fcc crystals with selectively incorporated defects.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3820-3826 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | CrystEngComm |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |