Measurement of correlations between low-frequency vibrational modes and particle rearrangements in quasi-two-dimensional colloidal glasses

Ke Chen*, M. L. Manning, Peter J. Yunker, Wouter G. Ellenbroek, Zexin Zhang, Andrea J. Liu, A. G. Yodh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

107 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We investigate correlations between low-frequency vibrational modes and rearrangements in two-dimensional colloidal glasses composed of thermosensitive microgel particles, which readily permit variation of the sample packing fraction. At each packing fraction, the particle displacement covariance matrix is measured and used to extract the vibrational spectrum of the "shadow" colloidal glass (i.e., the particle network with the same geometry and interactions as the sample colloid but absent damping). Rearrangements are induced by successive, small reductions in the packing fraction. The experimental results suggest that low-frequency quasilocalized phonon modes in colloidal glasses, i.e., modes that present low energy barriers for system rearrangements, are spatially correlated with rearrangements in this thermal system.

Original languageEnglish
Article number108301
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume107
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Aug 2011
Externally publishedYes

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