Colloidal systems: 'Analog Computers' for simulating the dynamics of crystals and glasses

Frans Spaepen

Harvard University, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, USA

Colloidal particles in a fluid interact by central potentials (hard sphere or electrostatic). At large packing fractions they form phases similar to those formed by atoms in condensed matter: liquids, crystals and glasses. Since the particles are large and slow, they can be tracked in time and in three-dimensional space by confocal microscopy. Colloidal systems, therefore, are highly efficient "analog computers" for the study of the dynamics of complex multiparticle phenomena in condensed matter. A number of examples are presented: crystal nucleation, coherency dislocations in epitaxial growth, indentation of single crystals, plastic shear of glasses, and the structure of grain- and twin boundaries.

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