  It is general wisdom that the pair potential of charged colloids in a liquid
may be closely approximated by a Yukawa interaction, as predicted by the
classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. We experimentally
determine the effective forces in a binary mixture of like-charged particles,
of species 1 and 2, with blinking optical tweezers. The measured forces are
consistent with a Yukawa pair potential but the (12) cross-interaction is not
equal to the geometric mean of the (11) and (22) like-interactions, as expected
from DLVO. The deviation is a function of the electrostatic screening length
and the size ratio, with the cross-interaction measured being consistently
weaker than DLVO predictions. The corresponding non-additivity parameter is
negative and grows in magnitude with increased size asymmetry.
