New routes to amorphous structures


  David Weitz  
Harvard

This talk will describe unusual phase transitions that take advantage of soft matter.  One system is a new method for producing amorphous structure from materials that exhibit a very high propensity for crystallization.  This is achieved through very rapid quenching of a precipitating solid through evaporation of the solvent in a spray-drying configuration.  A second systems is a nearly perfect colloidal crystal that does not possess any interfaces that induce melting.  As a result, melting is delayed and the melting transition attains many hallmarks of a second order transition.