Magnetic-field-induced Isotropic-Nematic Phase Transition in a Colloidal Suspension

Evidence of a magnetic-field-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition is presented for a colloidal suspension of monodisperse fd virus, a semiflexible particle with a length-to-diameter ratio of \ensuremath{\sim}140. The dynamics of the phase transition are slow enough to study the unstable portion of the phase diagram and the subsequent phase separation.