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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 97 » Issue 26
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 265701 (2006) [4 pages]

Contribution of Slow Clusters to the Bulk Elasticity Near the Colloidal Glass Transition

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Jacinta C. Conrad1, Param P. Dhillon2, Eric R. Weeks3, David R. Reichman4, and David A. Weitz1,5
1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
2Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
3Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA
4Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
5DEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Received 18 July 2006; published 27 December 2006

We use confocal microscopy to visualize individual particles near the colloidal glass transition. We identify the most slowly-relaxing particles and show that they form spatially correlated clusters that percolate across the sample. In supercooled fluids, the largest cluster spans the system on short time scales but breaks up on longer time scales. In contrast, in glasses, a percolating cluster exists on all accessible time scales. Using molecular dynamics simulation, we show that these clusters make the dominant contribution to the bulk elasticity of the sample.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.265701
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.265701
PACS:
64.70.Pf, 82.70.Dd, 83.10.Rs
 
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