DYNAMICS AND SCALING IN HARD-SPHERE COLLOIDAL SUSPENSIONS

Results are described from dynamic light scattering studies on concent rated suspensions of 'hard-sphere' colloidal particles in their equili brium and metastable fluid states. We have found that the time and wav e vector dependencies of the diffusion coefficients and (consequently) the logarithms of the intermediate scattering functions can be factor ized. This is demonstrated by a simple scaling procedure which collaps es the diffusion coefficients and the measured intermediate scattering functions over a wide (but not complete) range of wave vectors onto s ingle time-dependent master curves. An interpretation suggests that th e relaxation of interparticle structure is related to self-diffusion.