Crystallization in suspensions of hard spheres: A Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulation study

TL;DR

This study investigates the crystallization process in hard sphere suspensions using Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations, revealing the role of low bond-order precursors and aligning simulation results with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the nucleation mechanism in hard spheres and demonstrates that simulations can accurately reproduce experimental nucleation rates.

Findings

Crystallization is mediated by low bond-order precursors.

Simulation data closely match experimental nucleation rates.

The study clarifies the nucleation process in hard sphere systems.

Abstract

The crystallization of a metastable melt is one of the most important non equilibrium phenomena in condensed matter physics, and hard sphere colloidal model systems have been used for several decades to investigate this process by experimental observation and computer simulation. Nevertheless, there is still an unexplained discrepancy between simulation data and experimental nucleation rate densities. In this paper we examine the nucleation process in hard spheres using molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation. We show that the crystallization process is mediated by precursors of low orientational bond-order and that our simulation data fairly match the experimental data sets.