Achievement

IGERT Fellow John Mergo has been using micron-sized particles (or colloids) to model the growth of crystals. Since micron-sized particles move through liquid much more slowly than individual atoms, all of the particles can be individually tracked during growth -- a task that would be impossible with natural crystal growth. Mergo has created artificial crystal surfaces to model growth on different crystal faces. Surprisingly, he saw that more tightly packed crystal surfaces melted faster than loosely packed faces. By imaging the motion of individual particles on the melting face, Mergo saw that tight packing enabled the particles to move more quickly across the surface, thereby speeding up melting dynamics. Understanding the dynamics of crystallization will assist in the creation of higher-quality crystals and films, which are important components in the semiconductor and optical industries.