Crystal Nucleation behavior near gas-liquid spinodal line

The complex problem of crystal nucleation is currently at stage. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the crystal nucleation behavior of colloids modeled by hard-core particles with narrow square well attractive potential. For this system the liquid gas critical point lies below the gas-crystal equilibrium line. We investigate how the nucleation rate depends on the pressure and density, in particular in the vicinity of the liquid-gas spinodal. We find that there is a correlation between nucleation rate and spinodal line. We interprete our results using classical nucleation theory.