The colloidal domain is characterized by the dimensions of its constituents in the range from
several nanometers to micrometers. Often, these individual entities are organized in …

The simplicity of hard spheres as a model system is deceptive. Although the particles
interact solely through volume exclusion, that nevertheless suffices for a wealth of static and …

Nature evolved a variety of hierarchical structures that produce sophisticated functions.
Inspired by these natural materials, colloidal self-assembly provides a convenient way to …

Many fundamental issues in classical condensed matter physics can be addressed
experimentally using systems of individually visible mesoscopic particles playing the role of …

Crystal phase, an intrinsic characteristic of crystalline materials, is one of the key parameters
to determine their physicochemical properties. Recently, great progress has been made in …

Three-dimensional photonic crystals, or periodic materials, that do not allow the propagation
of photons in all directions with a wavelength in the visible region have not been …

Despite progress in the understanding of crystal nucleation and crystal growth since the first
theories for nucleation were developed, an exact quantitative prediction of the nucleation …

This article reviews recent applications of controlled wrinkling for creating structured and/or
patterned interfaces, and its use in metrology. We discuss how wrinkles develop as a result …

Colloidal model systems allow studying crystallization kinetics under fairly ideal conditions,
with rather well-characterized pair interactions and minimized external influences. In …

Phase diagrams of hard and soft spheres with a fixed dipole moment are determined by
calculating the Helmholtz free energy using simulations. The pair potential is given by a …