Stressed out colloids: The effects of gravity on sedimented suspensions

ORAL

Abstract

Using laser scanning confocal microscopy we investigate dense hard-sphere colloidal sediments. Confocal microscopy allows for both high temporal resolution and real-space three dimensional imaging. By density mismatching the particles and solvent, and introducing slight polydispersity, we produce sediments without crystalline order that are dynamically arrested. Within these sediments, distinct clusters of particles with reduced local volume are observed. We will present our analysis of these structures, and postulate their equivalence to characteristic features of analogous jammed systems.

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Authors

  • Daniel L. Blair

    Harvard University

  • Jacinta Conrad

    DEAS/Dept of Physics, Harvard University

  • Eric R. Dufresne

    Yale University, Yale Univeristy

  • David Weitz

    Harvard University, Physics Department and Division of Engineering and Applied Scicence, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, DEAS Harvard University, DEAS and Department of Physics, Harvard University, DEAS/Dept of Physics, Harvard University, Harvard