Fast crystal growth at ultra-low temperatures.

It is believed that the slow liquid diffusion and geometric frustration brought by a rapid, deep quench inhibit fast crystallization and promote vitrification. Here we report fast crystal growth in charged colloidal systems under deep supercooling, where liquid diffusion is extremely low. By combining experiments and simulations, we show that this process occurs via wall-induced barrierless ordering consisting of two coupled steps: the step-like advancement of the rough interface that disintegrates frustration, followed by defect repairing inside the newly formed solid phase.