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Science 14 January 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5451, pp. 290 - 293
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5451.290
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Reports

Direct Observation of Dynamical Heterogeneities in Colloidal Hard-Sphere Suspensions

Willem K. Kegel, 1 and Alfons van Blaaderen 12

The real-space dynamics in a model system of colloidal hard spheres was studied by means of time-resolved fluorescence confocal scanning microscopy. Direct experimental evidence for the presence of dynamical heterogeneities in a dense liquid was obtained from an analysis of particle trajectories in two-dimensional slices of the bulk sample. These heterogeneities manifest themselves as a non-Gaussian probability distribution of particle displacements and also affect the onset of long-time diffusive behavior.

1 Van't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, Netherlands.
2 Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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