Ordering and short-time orientational diffusion in dipolar hard-spherical colloids.

Abstract

Orientational hydrodynamic functions and short-time, self-orientational and collective orientational diffusion coefficients of dipolar hard-spherical colloids are performed on a homogeneous isotropic phase, as functions of the wave vector q, for various values of the volume fraction and the dipolar strength of the macroparticles. The calculation is based on the dynamic orientational structure factor, which is the time-dependent self-correlation of the orientation density. We assume that the time evolution of the orientation density is given by the Smoluchoswki's equation, taking into account the hydrodynamic interactions as well as the dipolar interaction. The former are considered assuming pairwise additivity. The importance of the dynamic orientational structure factor is that its initial slope can be measured in a depolarized light scattering experiment. The results predict a different behavior for dilute and for dense dipolar colloids. The ordering phenomena are studied via the ordering coefficients, which are the orientational hydrodynamic functions at q=0. The results show that as the dipolar colloid evolves to the instability line, the translational ordering velocity increases while the rotational one reduces. The short-time orientational diffusion coefficients at q=0 are also performed. They predict that near to the instability line, the dipolar colloid diffuses translationally more than rotationally. At very dilute concentration the dipolar colloid presents an unexpected dynamical behavior, which seems to indicate that the colloid could be evolving to a reentrant phase.