Structure determines where crystallization occurs in a soft colloidal glass

Ganapathi, D and Chakrabarti, D and Sood, AK and Ganapathy, R (2020) Structure determines where crystallization occurs in a soft colloidal glass. In: Nature Physics .

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Abstract

Glass is inherently unstable to crystallization. However, how this transformation occurs while the dynamics in the glass stay frozen at the particle scale is poorly understood. Here, through single-particle-resolved imaging experiments, we show that due to frozen-in density inhomogeneities, a soft colloidal glass crystallizes via two distinct pathways. In the poorly packed regions of the glass, crystallinity grew smoothly due to local particle shuffles, whereas in the well-packed regions, we observed abrupt jumps in crystallinity that were triggered by avalanches�cooperative rearrangements involving many tens of particles. Importantly, we show that softness�a structural-order parameter determined through machine-learning methods�not only predicts where crystallization initiates in a glass but is also sensitive to the crystallization pathway. Such a causal connection between the structure and stability of a glass has so far remained elusive. Devising strategies to manipulate softness may thus prove invaluable in realizing long-lived glassy states. © 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Nature Physics
Publisher:	Nature Research
Additional Information:	The copyright of this article belongs to Nature Research
Keywords:	Crystallinity; Learning systems, Colloidal glass; Crystallization pathway; Imaging experiments; Inhomogeneities; Machine learning methods; Particle scale; Single particle; Structural order parameter, Glass
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2020 10:05
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2020 10:05
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/66649

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