Cooperative particle rearrangements facilitate the self-organized growth of colloidal crystal arrays on strain-relief patterns.

ABSTRACT: Strain-relief pattern formation in heteroepitaxy is well understood for particles with long-range attraction and is a routinely exploited organizational principle for atoms and molecules. However, for particles with short-range attraction such as colloids and nanoparticles, which form brittle assemblies, the mechanism(s) of strain-relief is not known. Here, we found that for colloids with short-range attraction, monolayer films on substrates with square symmetry could accommodate large compressive misfit strains through locally dewetted hexagonally ordered stripes. Unexpectedly, over a window of compressive strains, cooperative particle rearrangements first resulted in a periodic strain-relief pattern, which then guided the growth of laterally ordered defect-free colloidal crystals. Partic

SUBMITTER: Mondal M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7056312 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature