Attraction-driven disorder in a hard-core colloidal monolayer

Monte Carlo simulation techniques were employed to explore the effect of short-range attraction on the orientational ordering in a two-dimensional assembly of monodisperse spherical particles. We find that if the range of square-well attraction is approximately 15% of the particle diameter, the dense attractive fluid shows the same ordering behavior as the same density fluid composed of purely repulsive hard spheres. Fluids with an attraction range larger than 15% show an enhanced tendency to crystallization, while disorder occurs for fluids with an attractive range shorter than 15% of the particle diameter. A possible link with the existence of "repulsive" and "attractive" states in dense colloidal systems is discussed.