The frequency and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant, electric modulus and electrical conductivity of the transparent glasses in the composition 0.5Li2O-0.5Na2O-2B2O3 (LNBO) were investigated in the 100 Hz - 10 MHz frequency range. The dielectric data have been analyzed using Cole-Cole equation with an addition of the conductivity term. The electrical conductivity was found to be obeying Jonscher's universal law. The dielectric constant and the loss for the as-quenched glasses increased with increasing temperature, exhibiting anomalies in the vicinity of the glass transition and crystallization temperatures. The bulk DC conductivity at various temperatures was extracted from the electrical relaxation data. Conductivity plots were not found to follow Summerfield scaling due to mixed alkali effect. The imaginary part of electric modulus spectra was modeled using an approximate solution of Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) relation. The stretching exponent, β, was found to be 0.56 and temperature independent.
Boson peak and beta-relaxation are two intrinsic and markedly different dynamic modes of glasses, and their structural origins are long-standing issues. Through tuning atomic packing of a model metallic glass with microalloying of different types of elements, we find that low-temperature boson heat capacity peak evolves hand in hand with high-temperature beta-relaxation. A linear correlation between the boson peak temperature and the activation energy of beta-relaxation is disclosed. The coupling of the boson peak and the beta-relaxation indicates their common structural origin of the loosely …
Peculiarities of mixed cation effect in ternary glasses whose composition involves alkali and non-alkali unicharged ions and/or alkaline earth ions are explored within context of defect model for mixed mobile ion effect (V. Belostotsky, J. Non-Cryst. Solids (2007)). In mixed alkaline earth glasses mixed cation effect is observed as in ionic diffusivity as well as in the glass transition temperature reflecting the fact that movement of dissimilar ions of unequal size is accompanied by formation of intrinsic defects in glass matrix when mobile ions enter foreign sites. It is qualitatively simila…
Studying the primary α- and secondary β-relaxation process has contributed significantly to the understanding of the structure and rheology of metallic glasses. In this letter, we report on a third relaxation mechanism indicated by a maximum in the loss modulus at low temperatures, which we term γ-relaxation. Contrary to the α- and β-relaxation mechanisms, this irreversible, low energy excitation causes a macroscopic rejuvenation, which we assign to non-affine atomic rearrangements in the matrix that are driven by thermal stresses during cooling. Observed in three different glassy alloys, the …
Break-down of the relationship between α-relaxation and equilibration in hydrostatically compressed metallic glasses
Institut Néel, Université Grenoble Alpes and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学内尔研究所与法国国家科学研究中心）；Institut Lumière Matière UMR CNRS 5306, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS（里昂第一大学克劳德·贝尔纳物质光研究所（CNRS联合研究单位5306））；European Synchrotron Radiation Facility（欧洲同步辐射装置）；Chair of Metallic Materials, Saarland University（萨尔兰大学金属材料系）；Department of physics, Institute of Energy Technologies, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya- BarcelonaTech（加泰罗尼亚理工大学能源技术学院物理系）；Donostia International Physics Center（圣塞巴斯蒂安国际物理中心）；Centro de Física de Materiales (CSIC–UPV/EHU)（材料物理中心（西班牙高等科研理事会-巴斯克国立大学））；Chair of Metallic Materials, Berlin Institute of Technology (TU-Berlin)（柏林工业大学金属材料系）；Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans CNRS, IRD, OPGC, Université Clermont Auvergne（克莱蒙奥弗涅大学火山与岩浆实验室（CNRS、IRD、OPGC联合实验室））
The frequency and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and the electrical conductivity of the transparent glasses in the composition 0.5Cs2O-0.5Li2O-3B2O3 (CLBO) were investigated in the 100 Hz - 10 MHz frequency range. The dielectric constant for the as-quenched glass increased with increasing temperature, exhibiting anomalies in the vicinity of the glass transition and crystallization temperatures. The temperature coefficient of dielectric constant was estimated (35 \pm 2 ppm.K-1) using Havinga's formula. The dielectric loss at 313 K is 0.005 \pm 0.0005 at all the frequencies un…
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Raman studies are performed on fast ion conducting, AgI-Ag2O-MoO3 glasses, over a wide range of composition to understand the features of structure, ion migration and their correlation. These features essentially involve diffusion and relaxation. The coefficients associated with diffusion process, especially, the diffusion coefficient, diffusion length and relaxation time has been determined by applying Nguyen-Breitkopf method. Besides, by tuning the concentration of the constituents, it is possible to obtain samples those exhibit two important struct…
In this communication we report the fluorine ion dynamics in mixed alkali oxyfluro vanadate glasses. We have measured the electrical conductivity using impedance spectroscopy technique Room temperature conductivity falls to 5 orders of magnitude from its single alkali values at 33 mol% of rubidium concentration. We have also estimated the distance between similar mobile ions using the density values. Assuming this distance as the hopping distance between the similar ions we have estimated the anionic (Fluorine ion in our case) conductivity. It is observed that the fluorine ion dynamics mimics …
Negative Strain-Rate Sensitivity in Metallic Glasses Driven by Rejuvenation-Relaxation Competition: Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations and a Minimal Effective Model
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kanazawa University（金泽大学机械工程学院）；Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, The University of Osaka（大阪大学机械科学生物工程系）；Department of Earth and Space Science, The University of Osaka（大阪大学地球空间科学系）
This series discusses the origin of sound damping and dispersion in glasses. In particular, we address the relative importance of anharmonicity versus thermally activated relaxation. In this first article, Brillouin-scattering measurements of permanently densified silica glass are presented. It is found that in this case the results are compatible with a model in which damping and dispersion are only produced by the anharmonic coupling of the sound waves with thermally excited modes. The thermal relaxation time and the unrelaxed velocity are estimated.
Previously observed non-Arrhenius behavior in fast ion conducting glasses [\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.}\ \textbf{76}, 70 (1996)] occurs at temperatures near the glass transition temperature, $T_{g}$, and is attributed to changes in the ion mobility due to ion trapping mechanisms that diminish the conductivity and result in a decreasing conductivity with increasing temperature. It is intuitive that disorder in glass will also result in a distribution of the activation energies (DAE) for ion conduction, which should increase the conductivity with increasing temperature, yet this has not been iden…
Analytical representations in the time and frequency domains are derived for the most frequently used phenomenological fit functions for non-Debye relaxation processes. In the time domain the relaxation functions corresponding to the complex frequency dependent Cole-Cole, Cole-Davidson and Havriliak-Negami susceptibilities are also represented in terms of $H$-functions. In the frequency domain the complex frequency dependent susceptibility function corresponding to the time dependent stretched exponential relaxation function is given in terms of $H$-functions. The new representations are usefu…
While lot 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 fi…
The question of whether glass continues to relax at low temperature is of fundamental and practical interest. Here, we report a novel atomistic simulation method allowing us to directly access the long-term dynamics of glass relaxation at room temperature. We find that the potential energy relaxation follows a stretched exponential decay, with a stretching exponent $β= 3/5$, as predicted by Phillips' diffusion-trap model. Interestingly, volume relaxation is also found. However, it is not correlated to the energy relaxation, but is rather a manifestation of the mixed alkali effect.
Based on a hopping model we show how the mixed alkali effect in glasses can be understood if only a small fraction c_V ofthe available sites for the mobile ions is vacant. In particular, we reproduce the peculiar behavior of the internal friction and the steep fall (''vulnerability'') of the mobility of the majority ion upon small replacements by the minority ion. The single and mixed alkali internal friction peaks are caused by ion-vacancy and ion-ion exchange processes. If c_V is small, they can become comparable in height even at small mixing ratios. The large vulnerability is explained by …
It is suggested that the spectrum of ion site energies in glasses exhibits a band gap, establishing an analogy between ion conducting glasses and intrinsic semiconductors. This implies that ion conduction in glasses takes place via vacancies and interstitial ions (as in crystals).
A wide range of glassy and disordered materials exhibit complex, non-exponential, structural relaxation (aging). We propose a simple nonlinear rate equation dδ/dt = a [1-exp (bδ)], where 'δ' is the normalized deviation of a macroscopic variable from its equilibrium value, to describe glassy relaxation. Analysis of extensive experimental data shows that this equation quantitatively captures structural relaxation, where 'a' and 'b' are both temperature-, and more importantly, history-dependent parameters. This analysis explicitly demonstrates that structural relaxation cannot be accurately descr…
Slow relaxation occurs in many physical and biological systems. `Creep' is an example from everyday life: when stretching a rubber band, for example, the recovery to its equilibrium length is not, as one might think, exponential: the relaxation is slow, in many cases logarithmic, and can still be observed after many hours. The form of the relaxation also depends on the duration of the stretching, the `waiting-time'. This ubiquitous phenomenon iscalled aging, and is abundant both in natural and technological applications. Here, we suggest a general mechanism for slow relaxations and aging, whic…
We present a detailed analysis of the ion hopping dynamics and the related nearby oxygen dynamics in a lithium meta silicate glass via molecular dynamics simulation. For this purpose we have developed numerical techniques to identify ion hops and to sample and average dynamic information of the particles involved. This leads to an instructive insight into the microscopic interplay of ions and network. It turns out that the cooperative dynamics of lithium and oxygen can be characterized as a sliding door mechanism. It is rationalized why the local network fluctuations are of utmost importance f…
Knowledge of relaxation processes is fundamental in glass science and technology because relaxation is intrinsically related to vitrification, tempering as well as to annealing and sev-eral applications of glasses. However, there are conflicting reports -- summarized here for different glasses -- on whether the structural relaxation time of glass can be calculated using the Maxwell equation, which relates relaxation time with shear viscosity and shear modulus. Hence, this study aimed to verify whether these two relaxation times are comparable. The structural relaxation kinetics of a lead metas…
The frequency and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and the electrical conductivity of the transparent glasses in the composition Li2O-3B2O3 (LBO) were investigated in the 100 Hz- 10 MHz frequency range. The dielectric constant and the loss in the low frequency regime were electrode material dependent. Dielectric and electrical relaxations were respectively analyzed using the Cole-Cole and electric modulus formalisms. The dielectric relaxation mechanism was discussed in the framework of electrode and charge carrier (hopping of the ions) related polarization using generalized Co…
Avalanche behaviors, characterized by power-law statistics and structural relaxation that induces shear localization in amorphous plasticity, play an essential role in deciding the mechanical properties of amorphous metallic solids (i.e., metallic glasses). However, their interdependence is still not fully understood. To investigate the influence of structural relaxation on elementary avalanche behavior, we perform molecular-dynamics simulations for the shear deformation test of metallic glasses using two typical metallic-glass models comprising a less-relaxed (as-quenched) glass and a well-re…
The temperature dependence of the frequency dispersion in the sound velocity and damping of vitreous silica is reanalyzed. Thermally activated relaxation accounts for the sound attenuation observed above 10 K at sonic and ultrasonic frequencies. Its extrapolation to the hypersonic regime reveals that the anharmonic coupling to the thermal bath becomes important in Brillouin-scattering measurements. At 35 GHz and room temperature, the damping due to this anharmonicity is found to be nearly twice that produced by thermally activated relaxation. The analysis also reveals a sizeable velocity incre…
Electrical conduction and relaxation phenomena in bismuth borate glasses in the composition 2Bi2O3-B2O3 (Bi4B2O9) were investigated. Dielectric studies carried out on these glasses revealed near constant loss (NCL) response in the 1 kHz to 1MHz frequency range at moderately high temperatures (300-450K) associated with relatively low loss (D=0.006) and high dielectric constant (εr'=37) at 1kHz,300K. The variation in AC conductivity with temperature at different frequencies showed a cross over from NCL response characterized by local ion vibration within the potential well to universal Joncher's…
We present field effect measurements on discontinuous 2D thin films which are composed of a sub monolayer of nano-grains of Au, Ni, Ag or Al. Like other electron glasses these systems exhibit slow conductance relaxation and memory effects. However, unlike other systems, the discontinuous films exhibit a dramatic slowing down of the dynamics below a characteristic temperature $T^*$. $T^*$ is typically between 10-50K and is sample dependent. For $T<T^*$ the sample exhibits a few other peculiar features such as repeatable conductance fluctuations in millimeter size samples. We suggest that the en…
A systematic review of main physical effects generated by ion exchange in silicate glasses is presented. Ion concentration distributions, residual stress profiles, and refractive index effects are discussed with particular attention on the physical and mathematical underpinnings of the ion exchange process. The study has the purpose of presenting a scientific foundation to enable future developments in the field. In this respect, the objective of this article is more educational than to present new research results. Appendixes are included to consider the detail of some specific topics without…
Although it is indeed commonly believed that, as frozen supercooled liquids, glasses should continue to flow over the years (e.g., in the case of the stained-glass windows of medieval cathedrals), the dramatic increase of their viscosity below the glass transition temperature suggests, on the contrary, that their relaxation time is on the order of 10$^{32}$ years at room temperature. However, a recent study conducted by Mauro et al. reported the intriguing dynamics of the relaxation of a commercial Corning Gorilla Glass at room temperature, over 1.5 years. Here, we report a novel atomistic sim…
New metallic glasses containing La or Ce have been introduced that have dynamic properties bordering on extremes of conventional metallic glasses. This provides opportunity to test trends or correlations established before in molecular and polymeric glass-formers if exist the same exist in the broader family of metallic glasses. Due to the drastically different chemical and physical structure of metallic glass-formers than soft matter, there is no guarantee that any correlation found in the latter will hold in the former. If found, the result brings metallic glasses closer to the much wider cl…
Electrical conductivity of dry, slow cooled (AgPO$_3$)$_{1-x}$(AgI)$_x$ glasses is examined as a function of temperature, frequency and glass composition. From these data compositional trends in activation energy for conductivity E$_A$(x), Coulomb energy E$_c$(x) for Ag$^+$ ion creation, Kohlrausch stretched exponent $β$(x), low frequency ($\varepsilon_s$(x)) and high-frequency ($\varepsilon_\infty$(x)) permittivity are deduced. All parameters except E$_c$(x) display two compositional thresholds, one near the stress transition, x = x$_c$(1)= 9%, and the other near the rigidity transition, x = …
The mixed-alkali effect on the cation dynamics in silicate glasses is analyzed via molecular dynamics simulations. Observations suggest a description of the dynamics in terms of stable sites mostly specific to one ionic species. As main contributions to the mixed--alkali slowdown longer residence times and an increased probability of correlated backjumps are identified. The slowdown is related to the limited accessibility of foreign sites. The mismatch experienced in a foreign site is stronger and more retarding for the larger ions, the smaller ions can be temporarily accommodated. Also correl…
The effect of cyclic loading on relaxation dynamics and mechanical properties of metallic glasses is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. We consider the Kob-Andersen three-dimensional binary mixture rapidly cooled across the glass transition and subjected to thousands of tension-compression cycles in the elastic range. It was found that during cyclic loading at constant pressure, the system is relocated to progressively lower levels of the potential energy, thus promoting greater densification and higher strength. Furthermore, with increasing stress amplitude, the average glass densi…
The time evolution of the pore size distributions and mechanical properties of amorphous solids at constant pressure is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The porous glasses were initially prepared at constant volume conditions via a rapid thermal quench from the liquid state to the glassy region and allowing for simultaneous phase separation and material solidification. We found that at constant pressure and low temperature, the porous network becomes more compact and the glassy systems relocate to progressively lower levels of the potential energy. Although the elastic modulus and…
Mechanical relaxation behaviour of various natural volcanic glasses have been investigated in the temperature range RT-1200K using special low frequency flexure (f~0.63Hz) pendulum experiments. The rheological properties complex Young's modulus M* and internal friction 1/Q have been studied from a pure elastic solid at room temperature to pure viscous melt at log(eta[Pas])=8. Several relaxation processes are assumed to act: the primary alpha-relaxation (viscoelastic process, E_a=(344...554)kJ/mol) above the glass transition temperature T_g=(935...1105)K and secondary anelastic beta', beta and …
Ion-exchange is commonly used to chemically strengthen glasses, by replacing small atoms by larger ones at sub T$_g$ temperature, thereby inducing a compressive stress. However, the resulting expansion of the glass remains lower than that predicted by the difference of molar volumes of the as-cooled glasses, an anomaly that remains poorly understood. Here, based on molecular dynamcis simulations of permanently densified sodium silicate glasses coupled with topological constraint theory, we show that the rigidity of the network controls the extent of the dilatation. Isostatic networks, which ar…
Fracture initiation in glassy polymers with no notch is studied together with the evolution at zero stress in the glassy state. Confocal microscopy observations and auto-correlation methods are used to characterize specimens of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) loaded at room temperature and subsequently unloaded. The evolution of the morphology and the location of the cracking submitted to elongation rate up to 8% are reported and analyzed during the zero-stress relaxation. The crackling (longitudinal crack, transverse crack and crazes) takes place mainly within a 10micron thickness layer from t…
A new theoretical approach is presented for relating structural information to transport properties in ion conducting network glasses. It relies on the consideration of the different types of glass forming units and the charges associated with them. Changes in the compositions of these units lead to a re-distribution of Coulomb traps for the mobile ions and to a subsequent change in long-range ionic mobilities. It is furthermore shown how measured changes of the unit compositions can be explained by thermodynamic modeling. The theories are tested against experiments on borophosphate glasses an…
The evolution of porous structure, potential energy and local density in binary glasses under oscillatory shear deformation is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The porous glasses were initially prepared via a rapid thermal quench from the liquid state across the glass transition and allowed to phase separate and solidify at constant volume, thus producing an extended porous network in an amorphous solid. We find that under periodic shear, the potential energy decreases over consecutive cycles due to gradual rearrangement of the glassy material, and the minimum of the potentia…
In this paper, we present new models of germanium selenide chalcogenide glasses heavily doped with silver. The models were readily obtained with ab initio molecular dynamics and their structure agrees closely with diffraction measurements. Thermal molecular dynamics simulation reveals the dynamics of Ag+ ions and the existence of trapping centers as conjectured in other theory work. We show that first principles simulation is a powerful tool to reveal the motion of ions in glass.
For ion transport in network glasses, it is a great challenge to predict conductivities specifically based on structural properties. To this end it is necessary to gain an understanding of the energy landscape where the thermally activated hopping motion of the ions takes place. For alkali borophosphate glasses, a statistical mechanical approach was suggested to predict essential characteristics of the distribution of energies at the residence sites of the mobile alkali ions. The corresponding distribution of site energies was derived from the chemical units forming the glassy network. A hoppi…
We study the effect of physical aging on the mechanical properties of a model polymer glass using molecular dynamics simulations. The creep compliance is determined simultaneously with the structural relaxation under a constant uniaxial load below yield at constant temperature. The model successfully captures universal features found experimentally in polymer glasses, including signatures of mechanical rejuvenation. We analyze microscopic relaxation timescales and show that they exhibit the same aging characteristics as the macroscopic creep compliance. In addition, our model indicates that th…
Individual cationic site--energies are explicitly determined from molecular dynamics simulations of alkali silicate glasses, and the properties and relevance of this local energetics to ion transport are studied. The absence of relaxations on the timescale of ion transport proves the validity of a static description of the energy landscape, as it is generally used in hopping models. The Coulomb interaction among the cations turns out essential to obtain an average energy landscape in agreement with typical simplified hopping models. Strong correlations exist both between neighboring sites and …
The glass transition temperature (Tg) is the temperature, after which the supercooled liquid undergoes a dynamical arrest. Usually, the glass network modifiers (e.g., Na2O) affect the behavior of Tg. However, in aluminosilicate glasses, the effect of different modifiers on Tg is still unclear and show an anomalous behavior. Here, based on molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the glass transition temperature decreases with increasing charge balancing cations field strength (FS) in the aluminosilicate glasses, which is an anomalous behavior as compared to other oxide glasses. The results…
The slow advance of a crack in sodo-silicate glasses was studied at nanometer scale by in situ and real time atomic force microscopy (AFM) in a well controlled atmosphere. An enhanced diffusion of sodium ions in the stress gradient field at the submicrometric vicinity of the crack tip was revealed through several effects: growth of nodules in AFM height images, changes in the AFM tip/sample energy dissipation. The nodules patterns revealed a dewetting phenomenon evidenced by 'breath figures'. Complementary chemical micro-analyses were done. These experimental results were explained by a two-st…
Developing efficient, fast performing and thermally stable Silver iodide based fast ion conducting solids are of great interest for resistive switching applications, but still remain challenges. Metallization in bulk, behavior of threshold voltage profile over composition and corrosion reactions are few of these challenges. In this work, the switching behavior of bulk, fast ion conducting, vitreous (AgI)x-(Ag2O)25-(MoO3)75-x, for 60 < x < 40 solids, has been investigated, in order to understand the switching mechanism with theinert electrodes. By using inert electrodes, the switching becomes i…
Linking the pressure dependence of the structure and thermal stability to α- and \b{eta}-relaxations in metallic glasses
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility（欧洲同步辐射装置）；Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech（加泰罗尼亚理工大学）；Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)（德国航空航天中心）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）；Donostia International Physics Center（圣塞巴斯蒂安国际物理中心）
Bioactive glasses release ions such as sodium when implanted in the human body. However, an excess of the released ions can cause problems related to cytotoxicity. The ion release control is considered one of the primary challenges in developing new bioactive glasses. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of the density on atoms' dynamics in an archetypal phosphosilicate bioactive system. The diffusion coefficient displays three main regimes with increasing density. The mobility of the modifiers is significantly affected by the increase of the density, especiall…
Carrier-type reversal to enable the formation of semiconductor p-n junctions is a prerequisite for many electronic applications. Chalcogenide glasses are p-type semiconductors and their applications have been limited by the extraordinary difficulty in obtaining n-type conductivity. The ability to form chalcogenide glass p-n junctions could improve the performance of phase-change memory and thermoelectric devices and allow the direct electronic control of nonlinear optical devices. Previously, carrier-type reversal has been restricted to the GeCh (Ch=S, Se, Te) family of glasses, with very high…
We combine hydrodynamic and field theoretic methods to develop a general theory of phonons as Goldstone bosons in crystals, glasses and liquids based on non-affine displacements and the consequent Goldstones phase relaxation. We relate the conservation, or lack thereof, of specific higher-form currents with properties of the underlying deformation field -- non-affinity -- which dictates how molecules move under an applied stress or deformation. In particular, the single-valuedness of the deformation field is associated with conservation of higher-form charges that count the number of topologic…
We show that in monomeric supercooled liquids and glasses that are plastically flowing at a constant shear stress $σ$ while being deformed with strain rate $\dotε$, the microscopic structural relaxation time $τ_{\rm str}$ is given by the universal relation $σ/G_\infty\dotε$ with $G_\infty$ a modulus. This equality holds for all rheological regimes from temperatures above the glass transition all the way to the athermal limit, and arises from the competing effects of elastic loading and viscous dissipation. In macromolecular (polymeric) glasses, however, the stress decouples from this relaxatio…
We explore progress in understanding the behaviour of cation conducting glasses, within the context of an evolving ''dynamic structure model'' (DSM). This behaviour includes: in single cation glasses a strong dependence of ion mobility on concentration, and in mixed cation glasses a range of anomalies known collectively as the mixed alkali effect. We argue that this rich phenomenology arises from the emergence during cooling of a well-defined structure in glass melts resulting from the interplay of chemical interactions and thermally driven ionic motions. The new DSM proposes the existence of …
Particles in structural glasses rattle around temporary equilibriumpositions, that seldom change through a process which is much faster than the relaxation time, known as particle jump. Since the relaxation of the system is due to the accumulation of many such jumps, it could be possible to connect the single particle short time motion to the macroscopic relaxation by understanding the features of the jump dynamics. Here we review recent results in this research direction, clarifying the features of particles jumps that have been understood and those that are still under investigation, and exa…
Understanding and controlling physical aging, i.e. the spontaneous temporal evolution of out-of-equilibrium systems, represents one of the greatest tasks in material science. Recent studies have revealed the existence of a complex atomic motion in metallic glasses, with different aging regimes in contrast with the typical continuous aging observed in macroscopic quantities. By combining dynamical and structural synchrotron techniques, for the first time we directly connect previously identified microscopic structural mechanisms with the peculiar atomic motion, providing a broader unique view o…
A major challenge in the modeling of ionically conducting glasses is to understand how the large variety of possible chemical compositions and specific structural properties influence ionic transport quantities. Here we revisit and extend a theoretical approach for alkali borophosphate glasses, where changes of conductivity activation energies with the borate to phosphate mixing ratio are related to modifications of the ionic site energy landscape. The landscape modifications are caused by varying amounts of different units forming the glassy network, which lead to spatial redistributions of t…
We theoretically investigate high-pressure effects on the atomic dynamics of metallic glasses. The theory predicts compression-induced rejuvenation and the resulting strain hardening that have been recently observed in metallic glasses. Structural relaxation under pressure is mainly governed by local cage dynamics. The external pressure restricts the dynamical constraints and slows down the atomic mobility. In addition, the compression induces a rejuvenated metastable state (local minimum) at a higher energy in the free energy landscape. Thus, compressed metallic glasses can rejuvenate and the…
