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A Monte Carlo method is used in order to simulate the competition between the molecular relaxation and crystallization times in the formation of a glass. The results show that nucleation is avoided during supercooling and produce…
The fracture toughness of Al/SiC nanolaminates with different layer thicknesses (in the range 10 to 100 nm) was measured by means of micropillar splitting and bending of a notched beam. The crack plane was perpendicular to the layers in the…
We present results of Molecular Dynamics (MD) calculations on the behavior of liquid nanodroplets on rough hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid surfaces. On hydrophobic surfaces, the contact angle for nanodroplets depends strongly on the root…
Glass-forming liquids grow dramatically sluggish upon cooling. This slowdown has long been thought to be accompanied by a growing correlation length. Characteristic dynamical and static length scales, however, have been observed to grow at…
Understanding failure in nanomaterials is critical for the design of reliable structural materials and small-scale devices that have components or microstructural elements at the nanometer length scale. No consensus exists on the effect of…
The spontaneous formation of droplets via dewetting of a thin fluid film from a solid substrate allows for materials nanostructuring, under appropriate experimental control. While thermal fluctuations are expected to play a role in this…
In the recent years, much attention has been devoted to the inhomogeneous nature of the mechanical response at the nano-scale in disordered solids. Clearly, the elastic heterogeneities that have been characterized in this context are…
Soft-granular media, such as dense emulsions, foams or tissues, exhibit either fluid- or solid-like properties depending on the applied external stresses. Whereas bulk rheology of such materials has been thoroughly investigated, the…
The rapid rise of viscosity or relaxation time upon supercooling is universal hallmark of glassy liquids. The temperature dependence of the viscosity, however, is quite non universal for glassy liquids and is characterized by the system's…
The plastic deformation of crystalline materials can be understood by considering their structural defects such as disclinations and dislocations. Although glasses are also solids, their structure resembles closely the one of a liquid and…
One of the central problems of the liquid-glass transition is whether there is a structural signature that can qualitatively distinguish different dynamic behaviors at different degrees of supercooling. Here, we propose a novel structural…
Since crack propagation in oxide materials at low crack velocities is partly determined by chemical corrosion, proper knowledge of the crack tip chemistry is crucial for understanding fracture in these materials. Such knowledge can be…
Dense assemblies of self-propelled particles undergo a nonequilibrium form of glassy dynamics. Physical intuition suggests that increasing departure from equilibrium due to active forces fluidifies a glassy system. We falsify this belief by…
Amorphous silica ($a-SiO_2$) is a widely used inorganic material. Interestingly, the relationship between the local atomic structures of $a-SiO_2$ and their effects on ductility and fracture is seldom explored. Here, we combine large-scale…
We study theoretically and numerically a family of multi-point dynamic susceptibilities that quantify the strength and characteristic lengthscales of dynamic heterogeneities in glass-forming materials. We use general theoretical arguments…
The practical strength of oxide glasses is greatly reduced by surface flaws that form during processing and use. Instrumented indentation can mimic such real-life damage events and induce flaws and cracking under controlled conditions. At…
Building on the recently derived inhomogeneous mode-coupling theory, we extend the generalised mode-coupling theory of supercooled liquids to inhomogeneous environments. This provides a first-principles-based, systematic and rigorous way of…
Understanding how topological constraints affect the dynamics of polymers in solution is at the basis of any polymer theory and it is particularly needed for melts of rings. These polymers fold as crumpled and space-filling objects and,…
The microscopic mechanism by which amorphous solids yield plastically under an externally applied stress or deformation has remained elusive in spite of enormous research activity in recent years. Most approaches have attempted to identify…
The rheology of coextruded layered films of polystyrene/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS/PMMA) has been studied with small and large amplitude oscillations at a temperature above their glass transition. While the complex viscosity remains…