About project B2:
Anisotropic colloids form crystals not found with spherical colloids. In such systems, giant defect concentrations may exist and strongly influence their properties. We will study such nonideal crystals composed of particles with simple well-defined shapes of different symmetries. Micron sized particles with specifically designed shapes will be fabricated by optical nanolithography, and their packing will be studied by conventional and confocal microscopy. Density functional and correlation function theory will be combined with the experimentally observed structures to study their stability and mechanical and optical properties in the presence of defects.