Fractionated crystallization in a polydisperse mixture of hard spheres
نویسنده
چکیده
We consider the nature of the fluid–solid phase transition in a polydisperse mixture of hard spheres. For a sufficiently polydisperse mixture (s.0.085) crystallization occurs with simultaneous fractionation. At the fluid–solid boundary, a broad fluid diameter distribution is split into a number of narrower fractions, each of which then crystallize. The number of crystalline phases increases with the overall level of polydispersity. At high densities, freezing is followed by a sequence of demixing transitions in the polydisperse crystal. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-9606~98!51548-6#
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