Journal
NATURE PHYSICS
Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages 73-79Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS2817
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [91027001, 11074228]
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2012CB821500]
- CAS 100-Talent Program [2030020004]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2340000034]
- Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (GRF) [CUHK404211]
- Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (ECS) [CUHK404912]
- Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (CUHK) [4053021]
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When a system undergoes a transition from a liquid to a solid phase, it passes through multiple intermediate structures before reaching the final state. However, our knowledge on the exact pathways of this process is limited, mainly owing to the difficulty of realizing direct observations. Here, we experimentally study the evolution of symmetry and density for various colloidal systems during liquid-to-solid phase transitions, and visualize kinetic pathways with single-particle resolution. We observe the formation of relatively ordered precursor structures with different symmetries, which then convert into metastable solids. During this conversion, two major cross-symmetry pathways always occur, regardless of the final state and the interaction potential. In addition, we find a broad decoupling of density variation and symmetry development, and discover that nucleation rarely starts from the densest regions. These findings hold for all of our samples, suggesting the possibility of finding a unified picture for the complex crystallization kinetics in colloidal systems.
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