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Self-assembly of three-dimensional ensembles of magnetic particles with laterally shifted dipoles

Yener, Arzu B.; Klapp, Sabine H. L.

We consider a model of colloidal spherical particles carrying a permanent dipole moment which is laterally shifted out of the particles' geometrical centres, i.e. the dipole vector is oriented perpendicular to the radius of the particles. Varying the shift delta from the centre, we analyse ground state structures for two, three and four hard spheres, using a simulated annealing procedure. We also compare earlier ground state results. We then consider a bulk system at finite temperatures and different densities. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we examine the equilibrium self-assembly properties for several shifts. Our results show that the shift of the dipole moment has a crucial impact on both the ground state configurations as well as the self-assembled structures at finite temperatures.
Published in: Soft matter, 10.1039/c5sm02648b, Royal Society of Chemistry