Experimental Soft Condensed Matter Group Harvard University, Prof. D. A. Weitz Cool Picture of the Moment

A laser is shining through a colloidal crystal, which is formed at the bottom of the glass cell. The crystal consists of about 30 layers of 1.5 micron silica beads and was grown by slow sedimentation of the particles on a patterned substrate. By picking out one of the diffracted beams and imaging it through an objective and a projector lens we are able to visualize localized line defects (dislocations) in the fcc lattice and study their nucleation and propagation. (see Laser Diffraction Microscopy)

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Past cool pictures...