Phase diagram of hard spheres

摘要

We report results from the Space Shuttle experiments Colloidal Disorder--Order Transition (CDOT) 1 and 2. The phase diagram of colloidal hard spheres is measured in microgravity avoiding the effects of sedimentation and convection that arise with normal gravity. For samples in the crystal--liquid coexistence region we observed a dendritic growth. For high concentration samples near random close packing we observed crystallization and no evidence for a glassy phase.