Accelerated crystallization of colloidal glass by mechanical oscillation

Abstract

Crystallization of a hard-sphere colloidal glass by mechanical oscillation is investigated, and accelerated crystallization is found at a specific frequency. The crystallization frequency increases as attractive force between particles increases, indicating that interparticle interaction affects the crystallization frequency. Time scale of the mechanical oscillation is different from that of the slow relaxation, and notable relationship with the low-frequency mode is not observed. The experimental results are not explained by the previously proposed model for crystallization by oscillatory shear. Conversely, we speculate that activations of the fast relaxation and particle motion in crystal-like clusters are possible causes of the observations.