Martensitic transition in a confined colloidal suspension

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Abstract
We describe a nonequilibrium phase transition in a geometrically confined charge‐stabilized colloidal suspension. The equilibrium configuration for the spheres in this system is a two‐layer square lattice, equivalent to two layers of a body‐centered cubic (bcc) crystal. After electrophoretic shear melting, the suspension rapidly crystallizes to a buckled single‐layer triangular lattice. This well‐ordered solid phase subsequently undergoes a martensitic phase transition back to the two‐layer square lattice. We use high resolution digital video microscopy to follow the emergence and evolution of order during these phase transitions.