Experimental Study of 2D Colloidal Glass

We report our experimental progress towards the 2D colloidal glass problem: does a 2D colloidal glass possesses a finite longwave length shear rigidity? We approach the problem by designing a mesoscale glassy system that models glassy behavior on the microscopic scale, but its activated dynamics can be easily studied with optical microscopy. The system is comprised of monodispersed spherical colloids suspended in deionized water, confined to microfluidics channels. The challenge in 2D colloidal crystal experiments is to control the gap distance between the confining walls over a large area. In this work, we developed a direct bonding method using photolithography. The latest results will be reported.