Time-resolved analysis of a ‘crystal-like’ structure-forming process of a monodisperse polystyrene sphere as studied by rapid-scanning spectrophotometry
Abstract
Time-resolved transmitted-light spectra are obtained during the reappearance of the ‘crystal-like’ structure of a deionized polystyrene sphere after the rapid flow through a thin optical cell is stopped. Fast formation of metastable ordered structures finishes within 100 ms. Formation of the stable structure is attained after more than 1 s. Transformation of the lattice structure from face-centred cubic to body-centred cubic lattices is sometimes observed in the course of structure formation. These results support the idea that electrostatic intersphere repulsion in the effective hard-sphere model is essential to explain the ordering.