Aging dynamics of colloidal hard sphere glasses

We report the results of dynamic light scattering measurements of the coherent intermediate scattering function (ISF) of glasses of colloidal hard spheres for several volume fractions and a range of scattering vectors around the primary peak of the static structure factor. The ISF shows a clear crossover from an initial fast decay to a slower nonstationary decay. Aging is quantified in several different ways. However, regardless of the method chosen, the perfect aged glass is approached in a power law fashion. In particular the coupling between the fast and slow decays, as measured by the degree of stretching of the ISF at the crossover, also decreases algebraically with waiting time. The nonstationarity of this coupling implies that even the fastest detectable processes are themselves nonstationary. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3478542]