Acoustic and relaxation processes in supercooled orthoterphenyl by optical-heterodyne transient grating experiment

Uncovering Energetic Positions of Surface Trap States in α-Fe2O3 Treated with Cobalt Phosphate (Co-Pi) Using Charge Carrier-Selective Heterodyne Transient Grating Technique

Near-field heterodyne transient grating (NF-HD-TG) responses of hematite (α-Fe2O3) treated with cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi) were measured with the burn lasers inducing the depletion of the response by the removal of the trapped charge carriers in the target state, which is called charge carrier-selective heterodyne transient grating (CS-HD-TG) spectroscopic technique. We found that two distinct trap states co-existed in Co-Pi loaded on the surface of α-Fe2O3. One of them named r-SS2, of which potential was similar to that of r-SS1 in the surface of α-Fe2O3, acted as a recombination centre but could increase the lifetime of the trapped holes by the charge separation. We also revealed that the energetic position of the other (i-SS2), which has been regarded as the intermediate state for oxygen evolution reaction with low overpotential, was higher than that of i-SS1 in α-Fe2O3 but lower than those of r-SS1 and r-SS2.

q-Independent Slow Dynamics in Atomic and Molecular Systems

Investigating million-atom systems for very long simulation times, we demonstrate that the collective density-density correlation time (τ_{α}) in simulated supercooled water and silica becomes wave-vector independent (q^{0}) when the probing wavelength is several times larger than the interparticle distance. The q independence of the collective density-density correlation functions, a feature clearly observed in light-scattering studies of some soft-matter systems, is thus a genuine feature of many (but not all) slow-dynamics systems, either atomic, molecular, or colloidal. Indeed, we show that when the dynamics of the density fluctuations includes particle-type diffusion, as in the case of the Lennard-Jones binary-mixture model, the q^{0} regime does not set in and the relaxation time continues to scale as τ_{α}∼q^{-2} even at small q.

Direct measurement of the propagation of the phase-transition region of liquid crystals

Many types of active matter, such as biological cells, have liquid-crystalline membranes, which are soft and flexible in their interactions with their surroundings and sometimes allow molecular-structural or -orientational changes to extend for long distances, owing to long-range molecular interactions. Despite the technological and fundamental importance of these long-range changes, there is no good physical property with which to express them for the liquid crystal. Here, we show direct measurements of the propagation of structural or orientational changes due to long-range molecular interactions in liquid crystals. We induced a patterned phase transition in a liquid crystal via illumination with a fringe pattern and observed the propagation of the phase-transition region. We determined that the propagation occurred in a ballistic manner with a velocity of 80–110 m/s and that two types of propagation—side-by-side and head-to-tail molecular interactions—were found.

Correlating the stretched-exponential and super-Arrhenius behaviors in the structural relaxation of glass-forming liquids

Following the report of a single-exponential activation behavior behind the super-Arrhenius structural relaxation of glass-forming liquids in our preceding paper, we find that the non-exponentiality in the structural relaxation of glass-forming liquids is straightforwardly determined by the relaxation time, and could be calculated from the measured relaxation data. Comparisons between the calculated and measured non-exponentialities for typical glass-forming liquids, from fragile to intermediate, convincingly support the present analysis. Hence the origin of the non-exponentiality and its correlation with liquid fragility become clearer.

The low frequency phonons dynamics in supercooled LiCl, 6 H2O

We report the results of a series of ultrasound, Brillouin scattering, and optical heterodyne detected transient grating experiments performed on a LiCl, 6H(2)O solution from room temperature down to the vicinity of its liquid-glass transition, T(g) approximately 138 K. Down to T approximately 215 K, the supercooled liquid has a behavior similar to what is expected for supercooled water: its zero frequency sound velocity, C(0), continuously decreases while the corresponding infinite frequency velocity, C(infinity), sharply increases, reflecting the increasing importance of H bonding when temperature is lowered. Below 215 K, specific aspects of the solution, presumably related to the role of the Li(+) and Cl(-) ions, modify the thermal behavior of C(0), while a beta relaxation process also appears and couples to the sound propagation. The origin of those two effects is briefly discussed.

Analysis of a heterodyne-detected transient-grating experiment on a molecular supercooled liquid. I. Basic formulation of the problem

We present the basic equations necessary to interpret heterodyne-detected transient-grating experiments performed on a supercooled liquid composed of anisotropic molecules. The final expressions are given under a form suitable for their direct application to a test case.

Analysis of a heterodyne-detected transient-grating experiment on a molecular supercooled liquid. II. Application to m-toluidine

This paper reports the first detailed analysis of a transient grating (TG) experiment on a supercooled molecular liquid, m-toluidine, from 330K (1.75Tg) to 190K (1.01Tg) based on the theoretical model presented in Paper I of this series. This method allows one to give a precise description, over a wide dynamical range, of the different physical phenomena giving rise to the signals. Disentangling the isotropic and the anisotropic parts of the TG response, a careful fitting analysis yields detailed information on the rotation-translation coupling function. We also extract the structural relaxation times related to the "longitudinal" viscosity over almost 10 decades in time and the corresponding stretching coefficient. The value of some other parameters and information on their thermal behavior is also reported.

Supercooled water relaxation dynamics probed with heterodyne transient grating experiments

We report results from a heterodyne-detected transient grating experiment on liquid and supercooled water in a wide temperature range, from -17.5 to 90 degrees C. The measured signal covers an extremely large time window with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio that enables the investigation in a single experiment of the sound speed and attenuation, thermal diffusivity, and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant. The experimental data clearly show the effect of the density and the temperature fluctuations on the water dielectric function. In order to describe the experimental results, we introduce a comprehensive hydrodynamic model taking into account the coupled density and temperature variables and their relevance in the definition of the spontaneous and forced dielectric variations. We use this model to describe the measured signal in transient grating experiments, including the heating and the electrostrictive sources produced by the laser excitation. The fitting procedure enables the safe extraction of several dynamic properties of liquid and supercooled water: the sound velocity and its damping, the thermal diffusivity, and the ratio between the dielectric thermodynamic derivatives. The measured parameters are compared to the literature data and discussed in the complex scenario of water physics.

A new interpretation of dielectric data in molecular glass formers

Literature dielectric data of glycerol, propylene carbonate, and ortho-terphenyl show that the measured dielectric relaxation is a decade faster than the Debye expectation but still a decade slower than the breakdown of the shear modulus. From a comparison of time scales, the dielectric relaxation seems to be due to a process which relaxes not only the molecular orientation but also the entropy, the short range order, and the density. On the basis of this finding, we propose an alternative to the Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop extension of the Debye picture.

Direct observation of slow molecular relaxation by high-resolution light scattering spectroscopy

We developed a novel dynamic light scattering system to observe elastic relaxation phenomena with hyper frequency resolution. The principle of the measurement is based on the theory, which describes the dynamic structure factor of fluid under the condition of the frequency dependent compressibility. The dynamic structure factor, which is usually composed of the Brillouin and Rayleigh triplet, is modulated and shows an additional central component that directly reflects the whole aspect of the relaxation. In the experiment, the output from a frequency-doubled cw-YAG laser was incident into the liquid sample and the power spectrum of the light scattered into the backward direction was analyzed by the optical beating spectroscopy technique. The sample is liquid acetic acid that is known to show a strong ultrasonic relaxation around 1 MHz due to the molecular association process. We could find in the observed spectrum, the central component introduced by the phenomenon, whose relaxation frequency and the strength can be obtained from the width and the intensity of the observed central peak, respectively. The results show very good agreement with those previously obtained by the conventional ultrasonic spectroscopy technique.

Temperature and pressure study of Brillouin transverse modes in the organic glass-forming liquid orthoterphenyl

Transverse Brillouin spectra of orthoterphenyl are measured in the (250-305 K; 0.1-100 MPa) temperature-pressure range, which corresponds to the supercooled phase of this organic glass former. We show that the analysis of these spectra combined with an extrapolation of the reorientation times under pressure leads to an estimate of the static shear viscosity in a pressure range whose validity extends beyond the range of the Brillouin measurements. The relative contributions of temperature and of density to the change of this reorientation time measured along an isobar are extracted from our results in a large temperature range extending from the liquid to the low temperature supercooled state. They appear to be always of the same order of magnitude. It is also shown that in the range of the experiment, the orientational time is depending on a unique parameter built on temperature and density.

Nonequilibrium thermodynamic description of the coupling between structural and entropic modes in supercooled liquids

The density response of supercooled glycerol to an impulsive stimulated thermal grating (q=0.63 microm(-1)) has been studied in the temperature range (T=200-340 K) where the structure rearrangement (alpha relaxation) and the thermal diffusion occur on the same time scale. A strong interaction between the two modes occurs giving rise to a dip in the T dependence of the apparent thermal conductivity and a flattening of the apparent alpha-relaxation time upon cooling. A nonequilibrium thermodynamic model for the long time response has been developed. The model is capable to reproduce the experimental data and to explain the observed phenomenology.

Relaxation processes in an epoxy resin studied by time-resolved optical Kerr effect

The dynamics of the epoxy resin phenyl glycidyl ether, a fragile glass-forming liquid, is investigated in the liquid and supercooled phases by time-resolved optical Kerr effect experiment with an heterodyne detection technique. We tested the mode-coupling theory and found that the predicted dynamic scenario allows to reproduce properly the measured signal, for t>1 ps, in the whole temperature interval investigated. Furthermore, the values of T(c) and lambda, obtained from the analysis of three different and independent dynamic regimes (alpha regime, von Schweidler, beta regime), are in remarkable agreement. Moreover, relaxation times obtained from optical Kerr effect and dielectric spectroscopy measurements are compared. The two time scales differ only for a constant factor in the whole temperature interval investigated.