Surface premelting and melting of colloidal glasses

Abstract

The nature of liquid-to-glass transition is a major puzzle in science. A similar challenge exists in glass-to-liquid transition, i.e., glass melting, especially for the poorly investigated surface effects. Here, we assemble colloidal glasses by vapor deposition and melt them by tuning particle attractions. The structural and dynamic parameters saturate at different depths, which define a surface liquid layer and an intermediate glassy layer. The power-law growth of both layers and melting front behaviors at different heating rates are similar to crystal premelting and melting, suggesting that premelting and melting can be generalized to amorphous solids. The measured single-particle kinetics reveal various features and confirm theoretical predictions for glass surface layer.