Discontinuous nature of the repulsive-to-attractive colloidal glass transition

In purely repulsive colloidal systems a glass transition can be reached by increasing the particle volume fraction beyond a certain threshold. The resulting glassy state is governed by configurational cages which confine particles and restrict their motion. A colloidal glass may also be formed by inducing attractive interactions between the particles. When attraction is turned on in a repulsive colloidal glass a re-entrant solidification ensues. Initially, the repulsive glass melts as free volume in the system increases. As the attraction strength is increased further, this weakened configurational glass gives way to an attractive glass in which motion is hindered by the formation of physical bonds between neighboring particles. In this paper, we study the transition from repulsive-to-attractive glasses using three-dimensional imaging at the single-particle level. We show how the onset of cage weakening and bond formation is signalled by subtle changes in local structure. We then demonstrate the discontinuous nature of the solid-solid transition, which is marked by a critical onset at a threshold bonding energy. Finally, we highlight how the interplay between bonding and caging leads to complex and heterogeneous dynamics at the microscale.