Experimental verification of rapid, sporadic particle motions by direct imaging of glassy colloidal systems

RODRIGUEZ FRIS, JORGE ARIEL; APPIGNANESI, GUSTAVO ADRIÁN; WEEKS, ERIC

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2011 vol. 107 p. 65704 - 65704

0031-9007

We analyze data from confocal microscopy experiments of a colloidal suspension to validate predictions of rapid sporadic events responsible for structural relaxation in a glassy sample. Thetrajectories of several thousand colloidal particles are analyzed, confirming the existence of suchrapid events responsible for the structural relaxation of significant regions of the sample, and complementing prior observations of dynamical heterogeneity. Thus, our results provide the first direct experimental verification of the emergence of relatively compact clusters of mobility which allow thedynamics to transition between the large periods of local confinement within its potential energysurface, in good agreement with the picture envisioned long ago by Adam and Gibbs and Goldstein.