Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 17 November 1995:
Vol. 270. no. 5239, pp. 1177 - 1179
DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5239.1177
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Real-Space Structure of Colloidal Hard-Sphere Glasses

Alfons van Blaaderen (1) and Pierre Wiltzius

The real-space structure of hard-sphere glasses quenched from colloidal liquids in thermodynamic equilibrium has been determined. Particle coordinates were obtained by combining the optical sectioning capability of confocal fluorescence microscopy with the structure of specially prepared fluorescent silica colloids. Both the average structure and the local structure of glasses, with volume fractions ranging from 0.60 to 0.64, were in good agreement with glasses and random close packings generated by computer simulations. No evidence of a divergent correlation length was found. The method used to obtain the three-dimensional particle coordinates is directly applicable to other colloidal structures, such as crystals, gels, and flocs.


AT&T Bell Laboratories, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
(1) To whom correspondence should be addressed at Van 't Hoff Laboratory, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, Netherlands, or Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, Netherlands.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Elementary Structural Motifs in a Random Network of Cytosine Adsorbed on a Gold(111) Surface.
R. Otero, M. Lukas, R. E. A. Kelly, W. Xu, E. Laegsgaard, I. Stensgaard, L. N. Kantorovich, and F. Besenbacher (2008)
Science 319, 312-315
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Structural Rearrangements That Govern Flow in Colloidal Glasses.
P. Schall, D. A. Weitz, and F. Spaepen (2007)
Science 318, 1895-1899
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Estimation of critical exponents from cluster coefficients and the application of this estimation to hard spheres.
E. Eisenberg and A. Baram (2007)
PNAS 104, 5755-5758
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Real-Space Imaging of Nucleation and Growth in Colloidal Crystallization.
U. Gasser, E. R. Weeks, A. Schofield, P. N. Pusey, and D. A. Weitz (2001)
Science 292, 258-262
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Three-Dimensional Direct Imaging of Structural Relaxation Near the Colloidal Glass Transition.
E. R. Weeks, J. C. Crocker, A. C. Levitt, A. Schofield, and D. A. Weitz (2000)
Science 287, 627-631
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Direct Observation of Dynamical Heterogeneities in Colloidal Hard-Sphere Suspensions.
W. K. Kegel and a. A. van Blaaderen (2000)
Science 287, 290-293
   Abstract »    Full Text »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)