TY - JOUR
T1 - Gels and glasses in a single system: Evidence for an intricate free-energy landscape of glassy materials
AU - Jabbari-Farouji, S.
AU - Wegdam, G.H.
AU - Bonn, D.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - 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. © 2007 The American Physical Society.
AB - 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. © 2007 The American Physical Society.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.065701
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.065701
M3 - Article
C2 - 17930840
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 99
SP - 065701-1/4
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 6
M1 - 065701
ER -