English

Surface mobility gradient and emergent facilitation in glassy films

Soft Condensed Matter 2024-05-17 v1 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks

Abstract

Confining glassy polymer into films can substantially modify their local and film-averaged properties. We present a lattice model of film geometry with void-mediated facilitation behaviors but free from any elasticity effect. We analyze the spatially varying viscosity to delineate the transport property of glassy films. The film mobility measurements reported by [Yang et. al., Science, 2010, 328, 1676] are successfully reproduced. The flow exhibits a crossover from simple viscous flow to a surface-dominated regime as temperature decreases. The propagation of a highly mobile front induced by the free surface is visualized in real space. Our approach provides a microscopic treatment of the observed glassy phenomena.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.11210,
  title  = {Surface mobility gradient and emergent facilitation in glassy films},
  author = {Qiang Zhai and Xin-Yuan Gao and Chun-Shing Lee and Chin-Yuan Ong and Ke Yan and Hai-Yao Deng and Sen Yang and Chi-Hang Lam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.11210},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:51:40.765Z