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Colloidal crystals with a diamond and pyrochlore structure display widephotonic band gaps at low refractive index contrasts. However, theselow-coordinated and open structures are notoriously difficult to self-assemblefrom colloids interacting with simple pair interactions. To circumvent theseproblems, one can self-assemble both structures in a closely packed MgCu2 Lavesphase from a binary mixture of colloidal spheres and then selectively removeone of the sublattices. Although Laves phases have been proven to be stable ina binary hard-sphere system, they have never been observed to spontaneouslycrystallize in such a fluid mixture in simulations nor in experiments ofmicron-sized hard spheres due to slow dynamics. Here we demonstrate, usingcomputer simulations, that softness in the interparticle potential suppressesthe degree of fivefold symmetry in the binary fluid phase and enhancescrystallization of Laves phases in nearly hard spheres.

Softness suppresses fivefold symmetry and enhances crystallization of binary Laves phases in nearly hard spheres