Probing excitations and cooperatively rearranging regions in deeply supercooled liquids.

ABSTRACT: Upon approaching the glass transition, the relaxation of supercooled liquids is controlled by activated processes, which become dominant at temperatures below the so-called dynamical crossover predicted by Mode Coupling theory (MCT). Two of the main frameworks rationalising this behaviour are dynamic facilitation theory (DF) and the thermodynamic scenario which give equally good descriptions of the available data. Only particle-resolved data from liquids supercooled below the MCT crossover can reveal the microscopic mechanism of relaxation. By employing state-of-the-art GPU simulations and nano-particle resolved colloidal experiments, we identify the elementary units of relaxation in deeply supercooled liquids. Focusing on the excitations of DF and cooperatively rearranging regions (CRRs)

SUBMITTER: Ortlieb L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10163050 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature