Reentrant glass transition in suspensions of colloidal ellipsoids

Abstract

The microscopic underpinnings of glasses and the glass transition continue to remain one of the grand challenges in condensed matter physics.13 It is well known that when a liquid is cooled slowly, at its freezing temperature, Tf , it transforM.S. to a crystalline state (Figure 1.1). However, if the same liquid is cooled rapidly, crystal- lization can be bypassed at Tf and the liquid can be supercooled and with further supercooling, at glass transition temperature, Tg, the liquid falls out of equilibrium (Figure 1.1). Associated with this transition, there is onset of an elastic modulus with almost no discernible change in structure. The system below Tg is called glass.