Emerging structural disorder in a suspension of uniformly dimpled colloidal particles

Abstract

We study the behaviour of uniformly dimpled colloidal particles in the vicinity of a featureless wall. We use laser scanning confocal microscopy to observe the structures that form in the first layer at the wall for both dimpled colloidal particles and their spherical counterparts. We show that there are notable differences in both the translational and orientational order between the two types of particle. The work illustrates how a small, uniform perturbation in the shape of a particle can lead to disordered structures that develop over time.