Perspective: Supercooled liquids and glasses

Continuous-time random-walk approach to supercooled liquids. I. Different definitions of particle jumps and their consequences

Single-particle trajectories in supercooled liquids display long periods of localization interrupted by "fast moves." This observation suggests a modeling by a continuous-time random walk (CTRW). We perform molecular dynamics simulations of equilibrated short-chain polymer melts near the critical temperature of mode-coupling theory Tc and extract "moves" from the monomer trajectories. We show that not all moves comply with the conditions of a CTRW. Strong forward-backward correlations are found in the supercooled state. A refinement procedure is suggested to exclude these moves from the analysis. We discuss the repercussions of the refinement on the jump-length and waiting-time distributions as well as on characteristic time scales, such as the average waiting time ("exchange time") and the average time for the first move ("persistence time"). The refinement modifies the temperature (T) dependence of these time scales. For instance, the average waiting time changes from an Arrhenius-type to a Vogel-Fulcher-type T dependence. We discuss this observation in the context of the bifurcation of the α process and (Johari) β process found in many glass-forming materials to occur near Tc. Our analysis lays the foundation for a study of the jump-length and waiting-time distributions, their temperature and chain-length dependencies, and the modeling of the monomer dynamics by a CTRW approach in the companion paper [J. Helfferich et al., Phys. Rev. E 89, 042604 (2014)].

Probing the glass transition from structural and vibrational properties of zero-temperature glasses

We find that the density dependence of the glass transition temperature of Lennard-Jones (LJ) and Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) systems can be predicted from properties of the zero-temperature (T=0) glasses. Below a crossover density ρs, LJ and WCA glasses show different structures, leading to different vibrational properties and consequently making LJ glasses more stable with higher glass transition temperatures than WCA ones. Above ρs, structural and vibrational quantities of the T=0 glasses show scaling collapse. From scaling relations and dimensional analysis, we predict a density scaling of the glass transition temperature, in excellent agreement with simulation results. We also propose an empirical expression of the glass transition temperature using structural and vibrational properties of the T=0 glasses, which works well over a wide range of densities.

Structural relaxation of vapor-deposited molecular glasses and supercooled liquids

The properties of vapor-deposited molecular glasses largely depend on deposition conditions, and stable and/or dense glasses are formed with several compounds.

Note: Effects of adding a viscosity-increasing 2 nm-size molecule on dielectric relaxation features and the dynamic heterogeneity view

To investigate the extent to which dynamic heterogeneity determines the relaxation features, we studied the effect of adding a viscosity-increasing, ∼2 nm size polyhederal oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) molecule on dielectric relaxation. Addition of POSS increased the relaxation time of the α-process, τ(m,α), and decreased the non-exponential response parameter, β, which is compatible with the dynamic heterogeneity view. But β varied monotonically with the composition, and there was little variation of β with the temperature, which seems incompatible with that view. Effects of adding nm-size particles in simulations may reveal how the size of dynamically heterogeneous regions affects τ(m,α) and β.

Ultrastable metallic glass

A new metallic glass, which was created by vapour deposition at an appropriately high substrate temperature, shows exceptional thermal stability, and enhanced glass transition temperature and elastic modulus. Comparing this new material with other organic glasses prepared by similar routes and known as ultrastable glasses demonstrates the formation of ultrastable glassy materials correlates to the important concept of fragility.

Manifestation of random first-order transition theory in Wigner glasses

We use Brownian dynamics simulations of a binary mixture of highly charged spherical colloidal particles to test some of the predictions of the random first-order transition (RFOT) theory [Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2091 (1987); Phys. Rev. A 40, 1045 (1989)]. In accord with mode-coupling theory and RFOT, we find that as the volume fraction of the colloidal particles ϕ approaches the dynamical transition value ϕ(A), three measures of dynamics show an effective ergodic to nonergodic transition. First, there is a dramatic slowing down of diffusion, with the translational diffusion constant decaying as a power law as ϕ→ϕ(A)(-). Second, the energy metric, a measure of ergodicity breaking in classical many-body systems, shows that the system becomes effectively nonergodic as ϕ(A) is approached. Finally, the time t(*), at which the four-point dynamical susceptibility achieves a maximum, also increases as a power law near ϕ(A). Remarkably, the translational diffusion coefficients, ergodic diffusion coefficient, and (t(*))(-) all vanish as (ϕ(-1)-ϕ(A)(-1))(γ) with both ϕ(A)(≈0.1) and γ being the roughly the same for all three quantities. Above ϕ(A), transport involves crossing free energy barriers. In this regime, the density-density correlation function decays as a stretched exponential [exp-(t/τ(α))(β)] with β≈0.45. The ϕ dependence of the relaxation time τ(α) could be fit using the Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher law with the ideal glass transition at ϕ(K)≈0.47. By using a local entropy measure, we show that the law of large numbers is not obeyed above ϕ(A), and gives rise to subsample to subsample fluctuations in all physical observables. We propose that dynamical heterogeneity is a consequence of violation of law of large numbers.

Crossover to surface flow in supercooled unentangled polymer films

We study the driven flow of an unentangled glassy polymer film with a free upper surface and supported below by a substrate using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations based on a bead-spring model. Above the glass transition temperature T(g), simple Poiseuille laminar flow is observed with the film mobility defined as the flow current density per unit pressure gradient scaling as h(3) with the film thickness h. Below T(g), the film mobility becomes independent of h, signifying surface transport. This is in full agreement with recent experiments on the time evolution of capillary waves in polystyrene films supported by silica. A mobile layer is found responsible for the surface transport, as previously conjectured. Our result also shows that it has a velocity profile decaying exponentially into the bulk.

Density dependence of dynamical heterogeneity in fluid methanol

Brillouin and Raman scattering experiments on methanol through its glass transition under pressure are reported. The Brillouin scattering data were analyzed using viscoelastic theory and a fit to the Vinet equation of state. The variation in the linewidth of the longitudinal acoustic mode with pressure shows a broad maximum centered around 3 GPa. The pressure evolution of the relaxation time in the GHz range is obtained, and the Raman data are analyzed in terms of the Boson peak and its associated relaxation time in the THz range. The pressure evolution of these two relaxation processes extends previous determinations of relaxations at lower frequency based on dielectric measurements in supercooled methanol. The relaxation processes in glass-forming methanol have now been investigated over a wide frequency range and their evolution followed over a large variation of density.

Heterogeneous relaxation dynamics in amorphous materials under cyclic loading

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate heterogeneous dynamics in amorphous glassy materials under oscillatory shear strain. We consider three-dimensional binary Lennard-Jones mixture well below the glass transition temperature. The structural relaxation and dynamical heterogeneity are quantified by means of the self-overlap order parameter and the dynamic susceptibility. We found that at sufficiently small strain amplitudes, the mean square displacement exhibits a broad subdiffusive plateau and the system undergoes nearly reversible deformation over about 10(4) cycles. Upon increasing strain amplitude, the transition to the diffusive regime occurs at shorter time intervals and the relaxation process involves intermittent bursts of large particle displacements. The detailed analysis of particle hopping dynamics and the dynamic susceptibility indicates that mobile particles aggregate into clusters whose sizes increase at larger strain amplitudes. Finally, the correlation between particle mobilities in consecutive time intervals demonstrates that dynamic facilitation becomes increasingly pronounced at larger strain amplitudes.

An explanation of the differences in diffusivity of the components of the metallic glass Pd43Cu27Ni10P20

Bartsch et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 195901 (2010)] reported measurements of the diffusivities of different components of the multi-component bulk metallic glass Pd43Cu27Ni10P20. The diffusion of the largest Pd and the smallest P was found to be drastically different. The Stokes-Einstein relation breaks down when considering the P constituent atom, while the relation is obeyed by the Pd atom over 14 orders of magnitude of change in Pd diffusivity. This difference in behavior of Pd and P poses a problem challenging for explanation. With the assist of a recent finding in metallic glasses that the β-relaxation and the diffusion of the smallest component are closely related processes by Yu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 095508 (2012)], we use the Coupling Model to explain the observed difference between P and Pd quantitatively. The same model also explains the correlation between property of the β-relaxation with fragility found in the family of (CexLa1-x)68Al10Cu20Co2 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1.

Anomalous diffusion of driven particles in supercooled liquids

We perform nonequilibrium dynamics simulations of a binary Lennard-Jones mixture in which an external force is applied on a single tagged particle. For the diffusive properties of this particle parallel to the force, superdiffusive behavior at intermediate times as well as giant long-time diffusivity is observed. A quantitative description of this nontrivial behavior is given by a continuous time random walk analysis of the system in configuration space. We further demonstrate that the same physical properties which are responsible for the superdiffusivity in nonequilibrium systems also determine the non-Gaussian parameter in equilibrium systems.