Glass Dynamics Deep in the Energy Landscape

When a liquid is cooled, progress down the energy landscape is arrested near the glass transition temperature T-g. In principle, lower energy states can be accessed by waiting for further equilibration, but the rough energy landscape of glasses quickly leads to kinetics on geologically slow time scales below T-g. Over the past decade, progress has been made probing deeper into the energy landscape via several techniques. By looking at bulk and surface diffusion, using layered deposition that promotes equilibration, imaging glass surfaces with faster dynamics below T-g, and optically exciting glasses, experiments have moved into a regime of ultrastable, low energy glasses that was difficult to access in the past. At the same time, both simulations and energy landscape theory based on a random first order transition (RFOT) have tackled systems that include surfaces, optical excitation, and interfacial dynamics. Here we review some of the recent experimental work, and how energy landscape theory illuminates glassy dynamics well below the glass transition temperature by making direct connections between configurational entropy, energy landscape barriers, and the resulting dynamics.

Automated summary

When a liquid is cooled, progress down the energy landscape is arrested near the glass transition temperature T-g. Techniques such as observing diffusion, deposition, imaging, and optical excitation have allowed experiments to probe deeper into the energy landscape. This has led to access to ultrastable, low energy glasses that were difficult to reach before.