Local melting attracts grain boundaries in colloidal polycrystals

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that laser-induced local melting can attract and deform grain boundaries in 2D colloidal crystals, offering a new method for shaping and studying grain boundary dynamics and microstructure fabrication.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique using local melting to manipulate grain boundaries in colloidal crystals, enabling controlled fabrication of microstructures.

Findings

Local melting attracts and deforms grain boundaries.

Recrystallization causes boundary deformation.

Method allows fabrication of arbitrary grain shapes.

Abstract

We find that laser-induced local melting attracts and deforms grain boundaries in 2D colloidal crystals. When a melted region in contact with the edge of a crystal grain recrystallizes, it deforms the grain boundary --- this attraction is driven by the multiplicity of deformed grain boundary configurations. Furthermore, the attraction provides a method to fabricate artificial colloidal crystal grains of arbitrary shape, enabling new experimental studies of grain boundary dynamics and ultimately hinting at a novel approach for fabricating materials with designer microstructures.