Glass transition and dynamical heterogeneities in charged colloidal suspensions under pressure.
Constant-pressure Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to study the static and dynamical properties of a liquidlike ordered suspension of like-charged colloidal particles subjected to a sudden compression. We report for the first time a liquidlike ordered monodisperse suspension undergoing a glass transition at a very low volume fraction ( straight phi = 0.003) and existence of dynamical heterogeneities near the glass transition. Mobile particles have been identified using the non-Gaussian parameter for the self-part of the Van Hove correlation function, and they are found to form clusters. The pressure dependence of mean cluster size and the cluster-size distribution of the mobile particles are discussed.
Tata
B V R
BV
Materials Science Division, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam-603 102, Tamil Nadu, India.
Mohanty
P S
PS
Valsakumar
M C
MC