Figure 2: Two-step gelation with DNACCs.

(a) Epifluorescence snapshots of α- (top,) and β- (bottom) colloids at different stages of the quenching procedure for a sample with φ_α=φ_β ≈5%. Scale bar, 20 μm. (b) Evolution of temperature (black curve, right axis) and for the two components (red curve for α, green curve for β, left axis) for a sample with φ_α ≈5% and φ_β ≈10%. (c) Confocal fluorescence images of three arrested samples (bottom) and corresponding top view of 3D volume reconstructions (top) with φ_α ≈5% and, from left to right, φ_β ≈5, 7.5 and 10% (α component in red, β component in green). Scale bar, 50 μm. (d) Chord-length distributions for the β-phase for samples shown in c. Circle symbols indicate φ_β ≈5%, square symbols indicate φ_β ≈7.5% and diamond symbols indicate φ_β ≈10%. Solid lines indicate exponential fits. (e) Persistence length λ evaluated from chord-length distributions of α- and β-components for samples shown in c. Experiments with α–β mixtures were repeated five times, and for each sample, 30–50 confocal images of 91 × 91 μm² were taken at random positions within the samples.