Royall C Patrick, Turci Francesco, Tatsumi Soichi, Russo John, Robinson Joshua
HH Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom. School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, United Kingdom. Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1FD, United Kingdom.
J Phys Condens Matter. 2018 Sep 12;30(36):363001. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/aad10a. Epub 2018 Jul 4.
Key to resolving the scientific challenge of the glass transition is to understand the origin of the massive increase in viscosity of liquids cooled below their melting temperature (avoiding crystallisation). A number of competing and often mutually exclusive theoretical approaches have been advanced to describe this phenomenon. Some posit a bona fide thermodynamic phase to an 'ideal glass', an amorphous state with exceptionally low entropy. Other approaches are built around the concept of the glass transition as a primarily dynamic phenomenon. These fundamentally different interpretations give equally good descriptions of the data available, so it is hard to determine which-if any-is correct. Recently however this situation has begun to change. A consensus has emerged that one powerful means to resolve this longstanding question is to approach the putative thermodynamic transition sufficiently closely, and a number of techniques have emerged to meet this challenge. Here we review the results of some of these new techniques and discuss the implications for the existence-or otherwise-of the thermodynamic transition to an ideal glass.
解决玻璃化转变这一科学挑战的关键在于理解液体冷却至熔点以下（避免结晶）时粘度大幅增加的根源。为描述这一现象，人们提出了许多相互竞争且往往相互排斥的理论方法。一些人假定存在一个真正的热力学相，即具有极低熵的“理想玻璃”，一种非晶态。其他方法则围绕玻璃化转变是一种主要的动力学现象这一概念构建。这些截然不同的解释对现有数据的描述同样出色，因此很难确定哪一种（如果有的话）是正确的。然而，最近这种情况开始发生变化。人们已达成共识，解决这个长期存在问题的一个有力方法是足够接近地研究假定的热力学转变，并且已经出现了一些技术来应对这一挑战。在此，我们回顾其中一些新技术的结果，并讨论其对向理想玻璃的热力学转变是否存在的影响。
