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Science 16 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5755, pp. 1797 - 1800
DOI: 10.1126/science.1120714
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Reports

Direct Experimental Evidence of a Growing Length Scale Accompanying the Glass Transition

L. Berthier,1* G. Biroli,2 J.-P. Bouchaud,3,4 L. Cipelletti,1 D. El Masri,1 D. L'Hôte,4 F. Ladieu,4 M. Pierno1

Understanding glass formation is a challenge, because the existence of a true glass state, distinct from liquid and solid, remains elusive: Glasses are liquids that have become too viscous to flow. An old idea, as yet unproven experimentally, is that the dynamics becomes sluggish as the glass transition approaches, because increasingly larger regions of the material have to move simultaneously to allow flow. We introduce new multipoint dynamical susceptibilities to estimate quantitatively the size of these regions and provide direct experimental evidence that the glass formation of molecular liquids and colloidal suspensions is accompanied by growing dynamic correlation length scales.

1 Laboratoire des Colloïdes, Verres, et Nanomatériaux, UMR 5587, Université Montpellier II and CNRS, 34095 Montpellier, France.
2 Service de Physique Théorique Orme des Merisiers, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France.
3 Science and Finance, Capital Fund Management 6-8 Bd Haussmann, 75009 Paris, France.
4 Service de Physique de l'État Condensé Orme des Merisiers, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: berthier{at}lcvn.univ-montp2.fr

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