Deconstructing the glass transition through critical experiments on colloids

The glass transition is the most enduring grand-challenge problem in contemporary condensed matter physics. Here, we review the contribution of colloid experiments to our understanding of this problem. First, we briefly outline the success of colloidal systems in yielding microscopic insights into a wide range of condensed matter phenomena. In the context of the glass transition, we demonstrate their utility in revealing the nature of spatial and temporal dynamical heterogeneity. We then discuss the evidence from colloid experiments in favor of various theories of glass formation that has accumulated over the last two decades. In the next section, we expound on the recent paradigm shift in colloid experiments from an exploratory approach to a critical one aimed at distinguishing between predictions of competing frameworks. We demonstrate how this critical approach is aided by the discovery of novel dynamical crossovers within the range accessible to colloid experiments. We also highlight the impact of alternate routes to glass formation such as random pinning, trajectory space phase transitions and replica coupling on current and future research on the glass transition. We conclude our review by listing some key open challenges in glass physics such as the comparison of growing static length scales and the preparation of ultrastable glasses that can be addressed using colloid experiments.     

Local plasmon sensor with gold colloid monolayers deposited upon glass substrates

A new optical sensor that uses local plasmon resonance is proposed. A peak that is due to the local plasmon resonance appears in the absorption spectrum of a gold colloid suspension in the visible region, and its height and wavelength depend on the refractive index of the suspension. These properties are used for optical sensors. We used gold colloid monolayers in which colloidal gold particles a few tens of nanometers in diameter were immobilized upon a glass slide by a functional organic coupling agent. We measured the absorption spectra of the the gold colloid monolayers, which were immersed in liquid samples or coated with thin films. We observed increases of both the resonance wavelength and the absorbance as the refractive indices of the sample liquids or the thickness of the coated films increased. The proportional constants of the resonance wavelength to the film thickness were 3.6 and 5.7 for a 13.9- and a 20.2-nm gold colloid monolayer, respectively.     

On the possibility of determining the thermodynamic temperature of colloid solutions by the nuclear magnetic resonance method

A new method of determining the thermodynamic temperature of colloid solutions placed onto a sealed glass vessel is considered; the method is based on measurements of the magnetic susceptibility in flowing liquid by the magnetic nuclear resonance method. Experimental results show that the Curie law holds for colloid solutions in the temperature range of 278–333 K, in which ferrofluid cells prepared based on these solutions are used.     

受驱无序胶体动力学

利用Langevin分子动力学，本数值研究点钉扎中心随机分布的二维胶体动力学．随着钉扎中心强度的提高，我们发现了从弹性脱钉到塑性脱钉的渡越，并伴随临界钉扎力在渡越区的明显提高，类似于超导体中的峰值效应．另外，我们首次发现：当塑性流动发生时，高速运动胶体粒子感受到的平均钉扎力在从玻璃态到液态的转变过程中会出现峰值效应，并伴随有速度-驱动力曲线的交叠．     

硫化钠表面增强拉曼光谱及其在味精检测中的应用研究

采用表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)表征了硫化钠分子的振动模式,获得了硫化钠较为全面的分子结构振动信息,确定以472 cm-1的特征峰为研究对象。以金溶胶为表面增强活性基底,研究了金纳米粒子粒径对增强效果的影响,确定粒径为97 nm的金溶胶增强效果最佳。以硝酸作为促凝剂,测得不同浓度硫化钠溶液的SERS。结果表明,当硫化钠浓度低至10-6 g·mL-1时,依然可以得到明显的拉曼光谱信号,光谱强度与金溶胶和硫化钠溶液的配比有关。将这种硫化钠的检测方法应用于味精样品的检测之中。分别在不同浓度的10 mL硫化钠溶液中溶入1 g味精,检测所得溶液的SERS。结果表明,当每千克味精中硫化钠的含量为10 mg时仍可检测出SERS信号,此种方法无需样品的预处理,操作简便快捷,在味精中硫化钠的定性检测方面具有特有的优势。     

金原子在熔融玻璃表面的凝聚特性

研究了沉积在熔融玻璃表面的金原子的扩散、凝聚以及结晶行为.实验结果表明:金原子在胶状的玻璃表面先形成具有特征结构的网状薄膜,其中金原子晶粒直径约为20nm;然后网孔逐渐增大直至薄膜破裂,金原子凝聚成准圆形的团族,其饱和直径约为1.2μm,扩散系数为10^-7—10^-8cm²/s数量级;通过快速且准无规地扩散,准圆形团簇最终凝聚成直径约为50μm的大型分枝状凝聚体 关键词： 薄膜 凝聚 扩散     

Optical characteristics of silver-doped polarizing glass

According to the theory of scattering and absorption of light, an anisotropic Ag colloid particle, which is small compared with the wavelength of the incident light, absorbs light differently in different directions. The underlying mechanism is regarded as electron plasma resonance. The optical anisotropy of a single Ag particle or of a group of the same particles has been analyzed. An equation for estimating the distribution of the particle shapes in space is proposed. Based on this equation and the work of other researchers, a program was designed to calculate the major principal transmittance and the minor principal transmittance of Ag-doped polarizing glass. The results show that the polarizing property of glass with particles with different aspect ratios is better than that of glass with identical particles. Also, the effective wavelength range is different if the particles' aspect ratios change, and this range tends to narrow as the parameter R (the rate of change of the aspect ratio) is increased.     

Fabrication of two-dimensional colloidal arrays

We report the effective fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) arrays of submicron colloidal particles. These colloidal arrays are produced in thin layers of monodisperse colloid suspensions on flat surfaces of solids such as clean glass or cleaved mica. The process of colloid assembling includes two steps, nucleation and growth, similar to those found in crystallization in solution but each of the steps in detail progresses with different mechanisms. The nucleation process is initiated by a special kind of capillary force acting parallel to the surface. The growth is guided by a laminar flow of water to the crystals, which is driven by water evaporation from 2D arrays. What is distinguishable in the 2D assembling is its active nature governed by the forces and flows, making a contrast to the diffusive mechanism in ordinary crystallization. With this two-step mechanism, a domain of hexagonally packed colloidal array can grow with time. A large and uniform film of particle monolayer is, thus, formed in a short period, from several seconds up to several minutes depending on the conditions controlled.     

Colloid coalescence with focused x rays

We show direct evidence that focused x?rays enable us to merge polymer colloidal particles at room temperature. This phenomenon is ascribed to the photochemical scission of colloids with x?rays, reducing the molecular weight, glass transition temperature, surface tension, and viscosity of colloids. The observation of the neck bridge growth with time shows that the x-ray-induced colloid coalescence is analogous to viscoelastic coalescence. This finding suggests a feasible protocol of photonic nanofabrication by sintering or welding of polymers, without thermal damage, using x-ray photonics.     

Plasmonic structure generation by laser illumination of silica colloid spheres deposited onto prepatterned polymer-bimetal films

Plasmonic structures are prepared on bimetal films evaporated onto glass substrates applying a multi-step process, and atomic force microscopy is utilized to study the structures after each step. Sub-micrometer gratings are generated on polycarbonate films spin-coated onto silver-gold bimetal layers by interference lithography (IL) applying the fourth harmonics of a Nd:YAG laser. These polymer gratings are used as prepatterned templates in order to deposit silica colloid spheres by spin-coating. It is shown that the conditions of periodic silica sphere-array formation along the template valleys are sufficiently large grating modulation depth, appropriate ratio of silica sphere diameter to grating period, and optimized speed of spinning. The periodic silica sphere arrays are illuminated by a homogeneous KrF excimer laser beam, and periodically arrayed sub-wavelength holes are drilled into bimetal films via colloid sphere lithography (CSL). The characteristic dimensions of the resulted plasmonic structures are defined by the polymer grating period and by the silica colloid sphere diameter. Attenuated total reflection spectroscopy is performed exciting plasmons on different metal-dielectric interfacial structures by the second harmonic of a continuous Nd:YAG laser. The polar and azimuthal angle dependent grating-coupling and scattering effects of the complex periodic structures on the resonance characteristic of plasmons is demonstrated.     

Weakly polydisperse systems: perturbative phase diagrams that include the critical region

The phase behavior of a weakly polydisperse system, such as a colloid with a small spread of particle sizes, can be related perturbatively to that of its monodisperse counterpart. I show how this approach can be generalized to remain well behaved near critical points, avoiding the divergences of existing methods and giving access to some of the key qualitative features of polydisperse phase equilibria. The analysis explains also why in purely size-polydisperse systems the critical point is, unusually, located very near the maximum of the cloud and shadow curves.     

离子注入SiO_2玻璃的光吸收研究

本文用卢瑟福背散射和光吸收技术研究了高剂量Ag离子注入SiO_2玻璃以及退火后的状况.吸收光谱测量表明,注入的Ag离子聚集形成了胶态粒子,其等离子共振峰的极大值在400nm处.运用米(Mie)理论和德拜(Doyle)方法,根据测得的等离子共振峰的光宽度,估算出Ag胶态粒子的半径约为18(?).     

Gels and glasses in a single system: evidence for an intricate free-energy landscape of glassy materials

In the free-energy landscape picture of glassy systems, their slow dynamics is due to a complicated free-energy landscape with many local minima. We show that for a colloidal glassy material multiple paths can be taken through the free-energy landscape. The evolution of the nonergodicity parameter shows two distinct master curves that we identify as gels and glasses. We show that for a range of colloid concentrations, the transition to nonergodicity can occur in either direction (gel or glass), accompanied by "hesitations" between the two. Thus, colloidal gels and glasses are merely global free-energy minima in the same free-energy landscape, and the paths leading to these minima can be complicated.     

Formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under femtosecond laser irradiation

We report on the formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser irradiation. We simultaneously focused two beams of femtosecond laser pulses inside a glass and confirmed the formation of characteristically shaped element distributions. The results of the numerical simulation in which we considered concentration- and temperature-gradient-driven diffusions were in excellent qualitative agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the main driving force is the sharp temperature gradient. Since the composition of a glass affects its refractive index, absorption, and luminescence property, the results in this study provide a framework to fabricate a functional optical device such as optical circuits with a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser.     

金刚石合成中的成核问题

本文基于溶剂-催化剂作用下金刚石合成中的胶体观点和结构转化模型,提出了作为金刚石结晶基元的双层椅子形网面组的相互聚结是金刚石成核的主要方式的观点。由实验得到金刚石成核数与温度的定性关系曲线以及金刚石成核与压力的关系,并据此讨论了所述成核理论对金刚石合成实践的指导作用。 关键词：     

银纳米粒子阵列的自组装及其表面增强拉曼光谱应用

在以聚赖氨酸为表面耦联层分子的玻片基底制备了银纳米粒子阵列。ＳＥＭ表征结果表明,银粒子以亚单层的形式排列在基底表面。比较银溶胶和纳米粒子阵列的紫外可见光谱可见聚赖氨酸耦联层对银纳米粒子的粒径具有一定的选择性,甲基紫精在银纳米粒子阵列上的表面增强ＦＴ拉曼光谱表明在近红外区拉曼散射的表面增强主要来自于化学增强效应。     

敲击水杯音调变化的实验研究

敲击装水的杯子时音调会发生变化,装水量的多少与音调变化之间的关系已有说明和讨论,但是在对其原因的分析却存在分歧.本文利用虚拟仪器,通过一系列实验,应用具体数据进行了定性分析.实验表明敲击杯口和杯壁,音调变化不同;敲击杯壁不同位置,音调不变.笔者发现从实证的角度得出的结论与以往观点不能完全吻合,从而尝试从杯子的横向、纵向振动、液体的黏滞性对杯子振动的影响等方面来进行解释.     

束缚电荷对玻璃材料二阶光学非线性的影响

对电场极化后薄膜材料与体材料二阶光学非线性的比较研究表明,二者具有相同的极化和弛豫特性．分析了束缚电荷的形成及其对二阶光学非线性的影响,定性地从理论上指出,由束缚电荷产生的电场对薄膜及体材料的极化和弛豫过程起了决定作用． 关键词： 二阶非线性 玻璃 极化 束缚电荷     

Mode improvement of a femtosecond laser beam by the spatially self-focusing effect in solid material

The self-focusing effect of femtosecond pulses in a thin piece of BK7 glass is researched through experiment and calculation. The spatial-mode improvement of the femtosecond laser beam is observed. Against the incident pulse with spatial wings, a Gauss-like spatial mode is obtained due to the spatially self-focusing effect in a solid material. The femtosecond pulse propagation in the thin glass plate is analyzed by the amended propagation equation, and the theoretical result shows a qualitative agreement with the experimental result. According to the analysis, the mode improvement of the femtosecond laser beam is resulted from the combination with the self-focusing and dispersion effects in the solid material.     

Monitoring the buckling threshold of drying colloidal droplets using water-ethanol mixtures

We visualize the drying of droplets of colloids suspended in a mixture of two miscible solvents, namely water and ethanol. After a period of isotropic shrinkage, droplets suddenly buckle like elastic shells. For a fixed colloid solid fraction, the buckling threshold evolves as a function of ethanol content, due to changes of the solvent mixture physical properties, such as viscosity and evaporation rate. A simplified model predicting the qualitative behavior of the buckling threshold as a function of the initial ethanol mass fraction has been developed that fits well experimental results.