Gao Qiong, Ai Jingdong, Tang Shixiang, Li Minhuan, Chen Yanshuang, Huang Jiping, Tong Hua, Xu Lei, Xu Limei, Tanaka Hajime, Tan Peng
State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
International Centre for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Nat Mater. 2021 Oct;20(10):1431-1439. doi: 10.1038/s41563-021-00993-6. Epub 2021 May 6.
It is believed that the slow liquid diffusion and geometric frustration brought by a rapid, deep quench inhibit fast crystallization and promote vitrification. Here we report fast crystal growth in charged colloidal systems under deep supercooling, where liquid diffusion is extremely low. By combining experiments and simulations, we show that this process occurs via wall-induced barrierless ordering consisting of two coupled steps: the step-like advancement of the rough interface that disintegrates frustration, followed by defect repairing inside the newly formed solid phase. The former is a diffusionless collective process, whereas the latter controls crystal quality. We further show that the intrinsic mechanical instability of a disordered glassy state subject to the crystal growth front allows for domino-like fast crystal growth even at ultra-low temperatures. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of fast crystal growth and may be useful for applications related to vitrification prevention and crystal-quality control.
人们认为，快速深度淬火带来的缓慢液体扩散和几何阻挫会抑制快速结晶并促进玻璃化。在此，我们报告了在深度过冷条件下带电胶体系统中的快速晶体生长，此时液体扩散极低。通过结合实验和模拟，我们表明这个过程是通过壁诱导的无障碍有序化发生的，该有序化由两个耦合步骤组成：粗糙界面的阶梯状推进消除了阻挫，随后是新形成的固相内部的缺陷修复。前者是一个无扩散的集体过程，而后者控制晶体质量。我们进一步表明，无序玻璃态在晶体生长前沿的固有机械不稳定性允许即使在超低温下也能实现多米诺骨牌式的快速晶体生长。这些发现有助于更深入地理解快速晶体生长，并且可能对与防止玻璃化和晶体质量控制相关应用有用。
