Dynamics and collapse of two-dimensional colloidal lattices

One interesting aspect of colloidal particles is the formation of colloidal crystals at the 2D and 3D levels. Here we report the dynamics and collapse of colloidal lattices at liquid-liquid interfaces using Pickering emulsions as an experimental template. The colloidal particles oscillate around their equilibrium positions. The short-time diffusion constant (< 10 s) of single particles increases with increasing lattice spacing; the oil-phase viscosity has an effect on diffusion only at large interparticle distances. Strikingly, we observe that the equilibrium structure can be disturbed when increasing the output laser intensity in a confocal laser scanning microscope, which leads to the collapse of colloidal lattices in the presence of small laser powers.