3 years ago

# Spatially Heterogeneous Dynamics in a Metallic Glass Forming Liquid Imaged by Electron Correlation Microscopy.

Jason J. Maldonis, Pei Zhang, Jan Schroers, Ze Liu, Paul M. Voyles

Supercooled liquids exhibit spatial heterogeneity in the dynamics of their fluctuating atomic arrangements. The length and time scales of the heterogeneous dynamics are central to the glass transition and influence nucleation and growth of crystals from the liquid. We report direct experimental visualization of the spatially heterogeneous dynamics as a function of temperature in the supercooled liquid state of a Pt-based metallic glass, using electron correlation microscopy with sub-nanometer resolution. An experimental four point space-time intensity correlation function demonstrates a growing dynamic correlation length, $\xi$, upon cooling of the liquid toward the glass transition temperature. $\xi$ as a function of the relaxation time $\tau$ data are in the good agreement with the Adam-Gibbs, inhomogeneous mode coupling theory and random first order transition theory of the glass transition. The same experiments demonstrate the existence of a nanometer thickness near surface layer with order of magnitude shorter relaxation time than inside the bulk.

Publisher URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1710.04791

DOI: arXiv:1710.04791v2

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.