Connecting short and long time dynamics in hard-sphere-like colloidal glasses. Issue 3 (1st December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pastore, Raffaele; Pica Ciamarra, Massimo; Pesce, Giuseppe; Sasso, Antonio
• Is Part Of: Soft matter. Volume 11:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 622
• Page End: 626
• Publication Date: 2014-12-01
• Subjects: Soft condensed matter -- Periodicals; 530.413
• DOI: 10.1039/c4sm02147a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-683X

Abstract

Abstract : We connect the intermittent single particle motion and the macroscopic dynamics in experiments on colloidal glasses. Abstract : Glass-forming materials are characterized by an intermittent motion at the microscopic scale. Particles spend most of their time rattling within the cages formed by their neighbors, and seldom jump to a different cage. In molecular glass formers the temperature dependence of the jump features, such as the average caging time and jump length, characterizes the relaxation processes and allows for a short-time prediction of the diffusivity. Here we experimentally investigate the cage-jump motion of a two-dimensional hard-sphere-like colloidal suspension, where the volume fraction is the relevant parameter controlling the slowing down of the dynamics. We characterize the volume fraction dependence of the cage-jump features and show that, as in molecular systems, they allow for a short time prediction of the diffusivity.