Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
Nat Mater. 2010 Apr;9(4):324-31. doi: 10.1038/nmat2634. Epub 2010 Feb 21.
Recently it has been revealed that when approaching the glass-transition temperature, T(g), the dynamics of a liquid not only drastically slows down, but also becomes progressively more heterogeneous. From our simulations and experiments of six different glass-forming liquids, we find that the heterogeneous dynamics is a result of critical-like fluctuations of static structural order, contrary to a common belief that it is purely of dynamic origin. The static correlation length and susceptibility of a structural order parameter show Ising-like power-law divergence towards the ideal glass-transition point. However, this structural ordering accompanies little density change, which explains why it has not been detected by the static structure factor so far. Our results suggest a far more direct link than thought before between glass transition and critical phenomena. Indeed, the glass transition may be a new type of critical phenomenon where a structural order parameter is directly linked to slowness.
最近的研究表明，当接近玻璃化转变温度 T(g)时，液体的动力学不仅会急剧减慢，而且还会变得越来越不均匀。通过对六种不同玻璃形成液体的模拟和实验，我们发现不均匀动力学是静态结构有序的类似临界波动的结果，与普遍认为的纯粹动态起源相反。结构有序参数的静态相关长度和磁化率显示出类似伊辛的幂律发散，朝着理想玻璃转变点。然而，这种结构有序伴随着很小的密度变化，这解释了为什么到目前为止它还没有被静态结构因子检测到。我们的结果表明，玻璃化转变和临界现象之间的联系比以前认为的更为直接。事实上，玻璃化转变可能是一种新的临界现象，其中结构有序参数与缓慢直接相关。
