Abstract
The mechanism by which a liquid may become arrested, forming a glass, is a long-standing
problem. So far no clear structural mechanism has been found. One promising approach is to
use real space analysis of colloidal dispersions at the single-particle level to reveal local
structural details which are inaccessible to many experimental techniques. Here we report a
simple method to control glass formation which enables us to tackle the competition between
crystallization and vitrification. While monodisperse colloidal hard spheres may readily
crystallize, polydisperse suspensions tend to form glassy structures. We exploit the difference
in sedimentation velocities of colloidal particles of different sizes, leading to a sediment which
changes continuously in composition as a function of height, revealing glassy and
crystalline states.
Original language | Undefined/Unknown |
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Pages (from-to) | 404225 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter |
Volume | 20 |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |