Related papers: Thermally Activated Processes in Polymer Glasses
Several puzzling regularities concerning the low temperature excitations of glasses are quantitatively explained by quantizing domain wall motions of the random first order glass transition theory. The density of excitations agrees with…
Typical properties of glassy materials are shown to be captured by a mean-field free-volume theory. Relaxation processes are supposed to be free-volume activated, and different entropy barriers are associated with density relaxation and…
We study the fluctuations of the directed polymer in 1+1 dimensions in a Gaussian random environment with a finite correlation length {\xi} and at finite temperature. We address the correspondence between the geometrical transverse…
The glass transition temperature $T_g$ and the temperature $T_{\alpha}$ corresponding to the peak in the dielectric loss due to the $\alpha$-process have been simultaneously determined as functions of film thickness $d$ through dielectric…
We present the temperature dependence of alpha-relaxation times of 13 glass formers determined from broadband dielectric spectroscopy, also including data from aging measurements. The data sets partly cover relaxation-time ranges of up to…
We study the activated motion of adsorbed polymers which are driven over a structured substrate by a localized point force.Our theory applies to experiments with single polymers using, for example, tips of scanning force microscopes to drag…
The glass transition temperature $T_{\rm g}$ and the temperature $T_{\alpha}$ corresponding to the peak in the dielectric loss due to the $\alpha$-process have been simultaneously determined as functions of film thickness d through…
In this work we present the general phase behavior of short tubelike flexible polymers. The geometric thickness constraint is implemented through the concept of the global radius of curvature. We use sophisticated Monte Carlo sampling…
We conduct a numerical study of the dynamic behavior of a dense hard sphere fluid by deriving and integrating a set of Langevin equations. The statics of the system is described by a free energy functional of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff form.…
We measure the isothermal rejuvenation of stable glass films of poly(styrene) and poly(methylmethacrylate). We demonstrate that the propagation of the front responsible for the transformation to a supercooled-liquid state can serve as a…
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,…
At ultralow temperatures, polymers exhibit quantum behavior, which is calculated here for the moments <R^2> and <R^4> of the end-to-end distribution in the large-stiffness regime. The result should be measurable for polymers in wide optical…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study a unique expanded jammed state. Tension transforms many glassy polymers from a dense glass to a network of fibrils and voids called a craze. Entanglements between polymers and interchain…
Nano-scale confinement of polymer in cone-shaped geometries occurs in many experimental situations. A flexible polymer confined in a cone-shaped nano-channel is studied theoretically and using molecular dynamics simulations. Distribution of…
We present a molecular dynamics study of the influence of knot complexity and molecular mass on glass formation upon cooling in knotted ring polymer melts. We find that cooperative motion, rigidity, and glassy dynamics can be tuned over a…
We study at- and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a single homopolymer chain at low temperature using molecular dynamics simulations. The main quantities of interest are the average root mean square displacement of the monomers below the…
The deformation kinetics for glassy polymers confined in microscopic domain at very low temperature regime was investigated using a transition-rate-state dependent model considering the shear thinning behavior which means, once material…
The temperature dependence of the viscosity of glass is a major concern in the field of glass research. Strong deviations from the Arrhenius law make the interpretation of the activation energy difficult. In the present study, a reasonable…
The aging behavior of polymer glass, poly(methyl methacrylate), has been investigated through the measurement of ac dielectric susceptibility ata fixed frequency after a temperature shift $\Delta T$ ($\le $ 20 K)between two temperatures,…
We describe a microscope-based optical setup that allows us to perform space-and time-resolved measurements of the spectral reflectance of transparent substrates coated with ultrathin films. This technique is applied to investigate the…