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Origin of Ultrastability in Vapor-Deposited Glasses

Ludovic Berthier, Patrick Charbonneau, Elijah Flenner, and Francesco Zamponi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 188002 – Published 1 November 2017
Physics logo See Synopsis: Why Vapor-Deposited Glasses Are so Stable

Abstract

Glass films created by vapor-depositing molecules onto a substrate can exhibit properties similar to those of ordinary glasses aged for thousands of years. It is believed that enhanced surface mobility is the mechanism that allows vapor deposition to create such exceptional glasses, but it is unclear how this effect is related to the final state of the film. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations to model vapor deposition and an efficient Monte Carlo algorithm to determine the deposition rate needed to create ultrastable glassy films. We obtain a scaling relation that quantitatively captures the efficiency gain of vapor deposition over bulk annealing, and demonstrates that surface relaxation plays the same role in the formation of vapor-deposited glasses as bulk relaxation does in ordinary glass formation.

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  • Received 8 June 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.188002

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Synopsis

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Why Vapor-Deposited Glasses Are so Stable

Published 1 November 2017

Simulations explain why glasses produced by vapor deposition can be as stable as ordinary glasses that have aged for thousands of years.

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Authors & Affiliations

Ludovic Berthier1, Patrick Charbonneau2, Elijah Flenner3, and Francesco Zamponi4

  • 1Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, UMR 5221, Université de Montpellier and CNRS, 34095 Montpellier, France
  • 2Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
  • 3Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
  • 4Laboratoire de physique théorique, Ecole normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France

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Issue

Vol. 119, Iss. 18 — 3 November 2017

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