TITLE:
Influence of Random Pinning on the Crystallization Process in Suspensions of Hard Spheres
AUTHORS:
Sven Dorosz, Tanja Schilling
KEYWORDS:
Nucleation, Random Pinning, Confinement, Hard Spheres
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Crystallization Process and Technology,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
3,
2014
ABSTRACT: We discuss crystal formation in supersaturated suspensions of
monodisperse hard spheres with a concentration of hard spheres randomly pinned
in space and time. The pinning procedure introduces an external length scale
and an external time scale that restrict the accessible number of configureurations
and ultimately the number of pathways leading to crystallization. We observe a
significant drop in the nucleation rate density at a characteristic pinning
concentration that can be directly related to the structure of the critical
nucleus and the dynamics of its formation in the unpinned system.