Freezing criterion for liquid to crystalline transition in charged colloidal suspensions

Abstract

The static structure factor, S(Q), for charged monodisperse colloids is measured using light scattering across the liquid to crystalline transition. The freezing transition is found to occur when Smax, the height of the first peak in S(Q), is around 2.1. This is in contrast to the Hansen-Verlet criterion of Smax=2.85 observed in atomic systems. The density functional theory of freezing by Ramakrishnan and Yussouff is used to understand the results. © 1989.