Crystallization of hard-sphere glasses

Details Crystallization of hard-sphere glasses Crystallization of hard-sphere glasses

2009-10-20

arxiv.org/abs/0910.3901v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 135704 (2009)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

4 pages, 3 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.135704

We study by molecular dynamics the interplay between arrest and crystallization in hard spheres. For state points in the plane of volume fraction ($0.54 \leq phi \leq 0.63$) and polydispersity ($0 \leq s \leq 0.085$), we delineate states that spontaneously crystallize from those that do not. For noncrystallizing (or precrystallization) samples we find isodiffusivity lines consistent with an ideal glass transition at $\phi_g \approx 0.585$, independent of $s$. Despite this, for $s<0.05$, crystallization occurs at $\phi > \phi_g$. This happens on time scales for which the system is aging, and a diffusive regime in the mean square displacement is not reached; by those criteria, the system is a glass. Hence, contrary to a widespread assumption in the colloid literature, the occurrence of spontaneous crystallization within a bulk amorphous state does not prove that this state was an ergodic fluid rather than a glass.

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