Evaluation of Growth Front Velocity in Ultrastable Glasses of Indomethacin over a Wide Temperature Interval

Front propagation in ultrastable glasses is dynamically heterogeneous

Upon heating, ultrastable glassy films transform into liquids via a propagating equilibration front, resembling the heterogeneous melting of crystals. A microscopic understanding of this robust phenomenology is, however, lacking because experimental resolution is limited. We simulate the heterogeneous transformation kinetics of ultrastable configurations prepared using the swap Monte Carlo algorithm, thus allowing a direct comparison with experiments. We resolve the liquid-glass interface both in space and in time as well as the underlying particle motion responsible for its propagation. We perform a detailed statistical analysis of the interface geometry and kinetics over a broad range of temperatures. We show that the dynamic heterogeneity of the bulk liquid is passed on to the front that propagates heterogeneously in space and intermittently in time. This observation allows us to relate the averaged front velocity to the equilibrium diffusion coefficient of the liquid. We suggest that an experimental characterization of the interface geometry during the heterogeneous devitrification of ultrastable glassy films could provide direct experimental access to the long-sought characteristic length scale of dynamic heterogeneity in bulk supercooled liquids.

Surface premelting and melting of colloidal glasses

The nature of liquid-to-glass transition is a major puzzle in science. A similar challenge exists in glass-to-liquid transition, i.e., glass melting, especially for the poorly investigated surface effects. Here, we assemble colloidal glasses by vapor deposition and melt them by tuning particle attractions. The structural and dynamic parameters saturate at different depths, which define a surface liquid layer and an intermediate glassy layer. The power-law growth of both layers and melting front behaviors at different heating rates are similar to crystal premelting and melting, suggesting that premelting and melting can be generalized to amorphous solids. The measured single-particle kinetics reveal various features and confirm theoretical predictions for glass surface layer.

Nucleation and Growth of the Supercooled Liquid Phase Control Glass Transition in Bulk Ultrastable Glasses

We report the anomalous bulk transformation of vapor deposited stable glasses into the liquid state. The transformation proceeds through two competing parallel processes: partial rejuvenation of the stable glass and nucleation and growth of liquid patches within the glass. The kinetics of the transformation extracted from heat capacity curves after isothermal runs is dominated by the heterogeneous nucleation and growth process that initiates at preexisting seeds and propagates radially at a velocity proportional to the alpha relaxation time. Remarkably, the distance between the activation seeds is independent of temperature within experimental uncertainty and amounts to several micrometers, a value in close agreement with the crossover length for TPD glasses. We speculate the initiation sites for the transformation of the glass into the supercooled liquid are localized regions of lower stability (or density).

Front-Mediated Melting of Isotropic Ultrastable Glasses

Ultrastable vapor-deposited glasses display uncommon material properties. Most remarkably, upon heating they are believed to melt via a liquid front that originates at the free surface and propagates over a mesoscopic crossover length, before crossing over to bulk melting. We combine swap Monte Carlo with molecular dynamics simulations to prepare and melt isotropic amorphous films of unprecedendtly high kinetic stability. We are able to directly observe both bulk and front melting, and the crossover between them. We measure the front velocity over a broad range of conditions, and a crossover length scale that grows to nearly 400 particle diameters in the regime accessible to simulations. Our results disentangle the relative roles of kinetic stability and vapor deposition in the physical properties of stable glasses.

Surface-Bulk Interplay in Vapor-Deposited Glasses: Crossover Length and the Origin of Front Transformation

Thin film stable glasses transform into a liquid by a moving front that propagates from surfaces or interfaces with higher mobility. We use calorimetric data of vapor-deposited glasses of different thicknesses and stabilities to identify the role of glassy and liquid dynamics on the transformation process. By invoking the existence of an ultrathin intermediate layer whose transformation strongly depends on the properties of both the liquid and the glass, we show that the recovery to equilibrium is driven by the mismatch in the dynamics between glass and liquid. The lifetime of this intermediate layer associated with the moving front is the geometric mean between the bulk transformation time and the alpha relaxation time. Within this view, we explain the observed dependencies of the growth front velocity and the crossover length with both stability and temperature. Extrapolation of these results points towards ordinary thin film glasses transforming via a frontlike transformation mechanism if heated sufficiently fast, establishing a close connection between vapor-deposited and liquid-cooled glasses.

Kinetic arrest of front transformation to gain access to the bulk glass transition in ultrathin films of vapour-deposited glasses

Physical vapour deposition has emerged as the technique to obtain glasses of unbeatable stability. However, vapour deposited glasses exhibit a different transformation mechanism to ordinary glasses produced from liquid. Vapour deposited glasses of different thermodynamic stability, from ultrastable to those similar to ordinary glasses, transform into the liquid state via front propagation starting at the most mobile surfaces/interfaces, at least for the first stages of the transformation, eventually dynamiting the high thermal stability achieved for some of these glasses. A previous study showed that it was possible to avoid this transformation front by capping the films with a higher Tg material. We show here fast calorimetry measurements on TPD and IMC vapour deposited glasses capped respectively with TCTA and TPD. This capped configuration is very effective in suppressing the heterogeneous transformation of the stable glasses into the supercooled liquid and shifts the devitrification temperature to much higher values, where the bulk homogeneous mechanism becomes active. This approach may be useful to further study the bulk glass transition in thin films.

Using deposition rate to increase the thermal and kinetic stability of vapor-deposited hole transport layer glasses via a simple sublimation apparatus

Deposition rate is known to affect the relative stability of vapor-deposited glasses; slower rates give more stable materials due to enhanced mobility at the free surface of the film. Here we show that the deposition rate can affect both the thermodynamic and kinetic stabilities of N,N^'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N^'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD) and N,N^'-di-[(1-naphthyl)-N,N^'-diphenyl]-1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine (NPD) glasses used as hole transport layers for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). A simple, low-vacuum glass sublimation apparatus and a high vacuum deposition chamber were used to deposit the glass. 50 μm thick films were deposited in the sublimation apparatus and characterized by differential scanning calorimetry while 75 nm thick films were prepared in the high vacuum chamber and studied by hot-stage spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The thermodynamic stability from both preparation chambers was consistent and showed that the fictive temperature (T_fictive) was more than 30 K lower than the conventional glass transition temperature (T_g) at the slowest deposition rates. The kinetic stability, measured as the onset temperature (T_onset) where the glass begins to transform into the supercooled liquid, was 16-17 K greater than T_g at the slowest rates. T_onset was systematically lower for the thin films characterized by SE and was attributed to the thickness dependent transformation of the glass into the supercooled liquid. These results show the first calorimetric characterization of the stability of glasses for OLED applications made by vapor deposition and the first direct comparison of deposition apparatuses as a function of the deposition rate. The ease of fabrication will create an opportunity for others to study the effect of deposition conditions on glass stability.

Emergence of a substrate-temperature-dependent dielectric process in a prototypical vapor deposited hole-transport glass

Since the discovery of ultrastability, vapor deposition has emerged as a relevant tool to further understand the nature of glasses. By this route, the density and average orientation of glasses can be tuned by selecting the proper deposition conditions. Dielectric spectroscopy, on the other hand, is a basic technique to study the properties of glasses at a molecular level, probing the dynamics of dipoles or charge carriers. Here, and for the first time, we explore the dielectric behavior of vapor deposited N,N-Diphenyl-N,N’bis(methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamines (TPD), a prototypical hole-transport material, prepared at different deposition temperatures. We report the emergence of a new relaxation process which is not present in the ordinary glass. We associate this process to the Maxwell-Wagner polarization observed in heterogeneous systems, and induced by the enhanced mobility of charge carriers in the more ordered vapor deposited glasses. Furthermore, the associated activation energy establishes a clear distinction between two families of glasses, depending on the selected substrate-temperature range. This finding positions dielectric spectroscopy as a unique tool to investigate the structural and electronic properties of charge transport materials and remarks the importance of controlling the deposition conditions, historically forgotten in the preparation of optoelectronic devices.

Influence of Vapor Deposition on Structural and Charge Transport Properties of Ethylbenzene Films

Organic glass films formed by physical vapor deposition exhibit enhanced stability relative to those formed by conventional liquid cooling and aging techniques. Recently, experimental and computational evidence has emerged indicating that the average molecular orientation can be tuned by controlling the substrate temperature at which these "stable glasses" are grown. In this work, we present a comprehensive all-atom simulation study of ethylbenzene, a canonical stable-glass former, using a computational film formation procedure that closely mimics the vapor deposition process. Atomistic studies of experimentally formed vapor-deposited glasses have not been performed before, and this study therefore begins by verifying that the model and method utilized here reproduces key structural features observed experimentally. Having established agreement between several simulated and experimental macroscopic observables, simulations are used to examine the substrate temperature dependence of molecular orientation. The results indicate that ethylbenzene glasses are anisotropic, depending upon substrate temperature, and that this dependence can be understood from the orientation present at the surface of the equilibrium liquid. By treating ethylbenzene as a simple model for molecular semiconducting materials, a quantum-chemical analysis is then used to show that the vapor-deposited glasses exhibit decreased energetic disorder and increased magnitude of the mean-squared transfer integral relative to isotropic, liquid-cooled films, an effect that is attributed to the anisotropic ordering of the molecular film. These results suggest a novel structure-function simulation strategy capable of tuning the electronic properties of organic semiconducting glasses prior to experimental deposition, which could have considerable potential for organic electronic materials design.

The role of thermodynamic stability in the characteristics of the devitrification front of vapour-deposited glasses of toluene

Glass stability and molecular shape affect the transformation mechanism of vapour deposited glasses.

Relaxation dynamics of glasses along a wide stability and temperature range

While lots of measurements describe the relaxation dynamics of the liquid state, experimental data of the glass dynamics at high temperatures are much scarcer. We use ultrafast scanning calorimetry to expand the timescales of the glass to much shorter values than previously achieved. Our data show that the relaxation time of glasses follows a super-Arrhenius behaviour in the high-temperature regime above the conventional devitrification temperature heating at 10 K/min. The liquid and glass states can be described by a common VFT-like expression that solely depends on temperature and limiting fictive temperature. We apply this common description to nearly-isotropic glasses of indomethacin, toluene and to recent data on metallic glasses. We also show that the dynamics of indomethacin glasses obey density scaling laws originally derived for the liquid. This work provides a strong connection between the dynamics of the equilibrium supercooled liquid and non-equilibrium glassy states.

Age and structure of a model vapour-deposited glass

Glass films prepared by a process of physical vapour deposition have been shown to have thermodynamic and kinetic stability comparable to those of ordinary glasses aged for thousands of years. A central question in the study of vapour-deposited glasses, particularly in light of new knowledge regarding anisotropy in these materials, is whether the ultra-stable glassy films formed by vapour deposition are ever equivalent to those obtained by liquid cooling. Here we present a computational study of vapour deposition for a two-dimensional glass forming liquid using a methodology, which closely mimics experiment. We find that for the model considered here, structures that arise in vapour-deposited materials are statistically identical to those observed in ordinary glasses, provided the two are compared at the same inherent structure energy. We also find that newly deposited hot molecules produce cascades of hot particles that propagate far into the film, possibly influencing the relaxation of the material.

Vapour-deposited glasses show high stability compared to that of aged glasses, but a structural understanding remains elusive. Here, Reid et al. find that vapour deposited and liquid-cooled glasses show identical structures, suggesting these two classes of films lie on the same path to equilibrium.

Ultrastable glasses portray similar behaviour to ordinary glasses at high pressure

Pressure experiments provide a unique opportunity to unravel new insights into glass-forming liquids by exploring its effect on the dynamics of viscous liquids and on the evolution of the glass transition temperature. Here we compare the pressure dependence of the onset of devitrification, T_on, between two molecular glasses prepared from the same material but with extremely different ambient-pressure kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities. Our data clearly reveal that, while both glasses exhibit different dT_on/dP values at low pressures, they evolve towards closer calorimetric devitrification temperature and pressure dependence as pressure increases. We tentatively interpret these results from the different densities of the starting materials at room temperature and pressure. Our data shows that at the probed pressures, the relaxation time of the glass into the supercooled liquid is determined by temperature and pressure similarly to the behaviour of liquids, but using stability-dependent parameters.

Glass transition and stable glass formation of tetrachloromethane

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) has been used to prepare organic glasses with very high kinetic stability and it has been suggested that molecular anisotropy is a prerequisite for stable glass formation. Here we use PVD to prepare glasses of tetrachloromethane, a simple organic molecule with a nearly isotropic molecular structure. In situ AC nanocalorimetry was used to characterize the vapor-deposited glasses. Glasses of high kinetic stability were produced by deposition near 0.8 Tg. The isothermal transformation of the vapor-deposited glasses into the supercooled liquid state gave further evidence that tetrachloromethane forms glasses with high kinetic stability, with the transformation time exceeding the structural relaxation time of the supercooled liquid by a factor of 10(3). The glass transition temperature of liquid-cooled tetrachloromethane is determined as Tg ≈ 78 K, which is different from previously reported values. The frequency dependence of the glass transition was also determined and the fragility was estimated as m ≈ 118. The successful formation of PVD glasses of tetrachloromethane which have high kinetic stability argues that molecular asymmetry is not a prerequisite for stable glass formation.

Vapor-deposited glasses of methyl-m-toluate: How uniform is stable glass transformation?

AC chip nanocalorimetry is used to characterize vapor-deposited glasses of methyl-m-toluate (MMT). Physical vapor deposition can prepare MMT glasses that have lower heat capacity and significantly higher kinetic stability compared to liquid-cooled glasses. When heated, highly stable MMT glasses transform into the supercooled liquid via propagating fronts. We present the first quantitative analysis of the temporal and spatial uniformities of these transformation fronts. The front velocity varies by less than 4% over the duration of the transformation. For films 280 nm thick, the transformation rates at different spatial positions in the film differ by about 25%; this quantity may be related to spatially heterogeneous dynamics in the stable glass. Our characterization of the kinetic stability of MMT stable glasses extends previous dielectric experiments and is in excellent agreement with these results.

Orientational anisotropy in simulated vapor-deposited molecular glasses

Enhanced kinetic stability of vapor-deposited glasses has been established for a variety of glass organic formers. Several recent reports indicate that vapor-deposited glasses can be orientationally anisotropic. In this work, we present results of extensive molecular simulations that mimic a number of features of the experimental vapor deposition process. The simulations are performed on a generic coarse-grained model and an all-atom representation of N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD), a small organic molecule whose vapor-deposited glasses exhibit considerable orientational anisotropy. The coarse-grained model adopted here is found to reproduce several key aspects reported in experiments. In particular, the molecular orientation of vapor-deposited glasses is observed to depend on substrate temperature during deposition. For a fixed deposition rate, the molecular orientation in the glasses changes from isotropic, at the glass transition temperature, Tg, to slightly normal to the substrate at temperatures just below Tg. Well below Tg, molecular orientation becomes predominantly parallel to the substrate. The all-atom model is used to confirm some of the equilibrium structural features of TPD interfaces that arise above the glass transition temperature. We discuss a mechanism based on distinct orientations observed at equilibrium near the surface of the film, which get trapped within the film during the non-equilibrium process of vapor deposition.

Photopatterning of Indomethacin Thin Films: a Solvent-Free Vapor-Deposited Photoresist

We report indomethacin as a photoresist that can be dry-deposited (as well as spin-coated), and developed in weak aqueous base. This is the first reported patterning of indomethacin as a resist material. Nanometer-scale patterns were achieved through DUV photolithography and the underlying patterning mechanism was investigated.

Substrate Temperature to Control Moduli and Water Uptake in Thin Films of Vapor Deposited N,N'-Di(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenyl-(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine (NPD)

Ultrastable glasses are generated by vapor deposition on substrates heated near the glass transition temperature (Tg), but it is unclear if the remarkable properties of such glasses are present in ultrathin (<100 nm) films. Here, we demonstrate that the moduli of 50 nm thick N,N'-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenyl-(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine (NPD) film can be increased from 1.5 to 2.5 GPa by simply increasing the temperature of the substrate during deposition with a maximum in modulus found at T/Tg = 0.94. This maximum in modulus is the same modulus obtained for very thin (<15 nm) NPD films deposited at 295 K (T/Tg = 0.80). However, the modulus of films deposited at this lower temperature abruptly decreases to approximately 1.5 GPa for thicker films; the modulus from deposition at T/Tg = 0.94 is thickness independent. In addition to the thin film modulus, the substrate temperature significantly impacts the water uptake in NPD films. From QCM, the volume fraction of water at equilibrium with nearly saturated water vapor decreases from nearly 4% to less than 1% as the substrate temperature increases from T/Tg = 0.82 to T/Tg = 0.93. The substrate temperature provides a simple route to control mechanical properties and water uptake into vapor-deposited NPD, and these concepts are likely extendable to other organic electronic materials; the increased moduli and decreased water uptake could enable improved performance and lifetime of small molecule glasses for a variety of organic electronic applications.

How much time is needed to form a kinetically stable glass? AC calorimetric study of vapor-deposited glasses of ethylcyclohexane

Glasses of ethylcyclohexane produced by physical vapor deposition have been characterized by in situ alternating current chip nanocalorimetry. Consistent with previous work on other organic molecules, we observe that glasses of high kinetic stability are formed at substrate temperatures around 0.85 Tg, where Tg is the conventional glass transition temperature. Ethylcyclohexane is the least fragile organic glass-former for which stable glass formation has been established. The isothermal transformation of the vapor-deposited glasses into the supercooled liquid state was also measured. At seven substrate temperatures, the transformation time was measured for glasses prepared with deposition rates across a range of four orders of magnitude. At low substrate temperatures, the transformation time is strongly dependent upon deposition rate, while the dependence weakens as Tg is approached from below. These data provide an estimate for the surface equilibration time required to maximize kinetic stability at each substrate temperature. This surface equilibration time is much smaller than the bulk α-relaxation time and within two orders of magnitude of the β-relaxation time of the ordinary glass. Kinetically stable glasses are formed even for substrate temperatures below the Vogel and the Kauzmann temperatures. Surprisingly, glasses formed in the limit of slow deposition at the lowest substrate temperatures are not as kinetically stable as those formed near 0.85 Tg.

Thermal stability of vapor-deposited stable glasses of an organic semiconductor

Vapor-deposited organic glasses can show enhanced kinetic stability relative to liquid-cooled glasses. When such stable glasses of model glassformers are annealed above the glass transition temperature Tg, they lose their thermal stability and transform into the supercooled liquid via constant velocity propagating fronts. In this work, we show that vapor-deposited glasses of an organic semiconductor, N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD), also transform via propagating fronts. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry and a new high-throughput annealing protocol, we measure transformation front velocities for TPD glasses prepared with substrate temperatures (TSubstrate) from 0.63 to 0.96 Tg, at many different annealing temperatures. We observe that the front velocity varies by over an order of magnitude with TSubstrate, while the activation energy remains constant. Using dielectric spectroscopy, we measure the structural relaxation time of supercooled TPD. We find that the mobility of the liquid and the structure of the glass are independent factors in controlling the thermal stability of TPD films. In comparison to model glassformers, the transformation fronts of TPD have similar velocities and a similar dependence on TSubstrate, suggesting universal behavior. These results may aid in designing active layers in organic electronic devices with improved thermal stability.

Transformation kinetics of vapor-deposited thin film organic glasses: the role of stability and molecular packing anisotropy

The growth front velocity of indomethacin glasses depends on deposition conditions but is not unambigously determined by its thermodynamic stability when the structure is not completely isotropic.