A systematic experimental study of dispersions of charged colloidal spheres
is presented on the effect of steady shear flow on nucleation and
crystal-growth rates. In addition, the non-equilibrium phase diagram as far as
the melting line is concerned is measured. Shear flow is found to strongly
affect induction times, crystal growth rates and the location of the melting
line. The main findings are that (i) the crystal growth rate for a given
concentration exhibits a maximum as a function of the shear rate, (ii) contrary
to the monotonous increase of the growth rate with increasing concentration in
the absence of flow, a maximum of the crystal growth rate as a function of
concentration is observed for sheared systems, and (iii) the induction time for
a given concentration exhibits a maximum as a function of the shear rate. These
findings will be partly explained on a qualitative level.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted in Langmui
