  Recent computational and theoretical studies have shown that the deformation
of colloidal suspensions under a steady shear is highly heterogeneous at the
particle level and demonstrate a critical influence on the macroscopic
deformation behavior. Despite its relevance to a wide variety of industrial
applications of colloidal suspensions, scattering studies focusing on
addressing the heterogeneity of the non-equilibrium colloidal structure are
scarce thus far. Here, we report the first experimental result using
small-angle neutron scattering. From the evolution of strain heterogeneity, we
conclude that the shear-induced deformation transforms from nearly affine
behavior at low shear rates, to plastic rearrangements when the shear rate is
high.
