Using non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, dielectric properties were studied on 50 nanometer length scales in poly-vinyl-acetate (PVAc) films in the vicinity of the glass transition. Low frequency (1/f) noise observed in the measurements, was shown to arise from thermal fluctuations of the electric polarization. Anomalous variations observed in the noise spectrum provide direct evidence for cooperative nano-regions with heterogeneous kinetics. The cooperative length scale was determined. Heterogeneity was long-lived only well below the glass transition for faster than average processes.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9807126,
title = {Nanometer Scale Dielectric Fluctuations at the Glass Transition},
author = {E. Vidal Russell and N. E. Israeloff and L. E. Walther and H. Alvarez Gomariz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9807126},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 embedded PS figures, RevTeX - To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett