Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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SYMR: Symposium Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: from Applications in Condensed-Matter Physics to New Frontiers

SYMR 8: Glasses and Glass Transition

SYMR 8.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 14:00–14:30, H48

New Approach to the Old Problem: Cooperativity in Dynamics of Glass Forming Systems — •Alexei Sokolov — Oak Ridge National Lab and UT Knoxville, USA

The mechanism behind the steep slowing down of molecular motions upon approaching the glass transition remains a great puzzle. Most of the theories relate this mechanism to the cooperativity in molecular motion. In this talk we present estimates and analysis of the molecular cooperativity in many glass-forming systems. We demonstrate that the cooperativity length scale directly correlates to the dependence of the structural relaxation on volume. This dependence presents only one part of the mechanism of slowing down the structural relaxation. Our analysis reveals that another part, the purely thermal variation of the structural relaxation, does not have a direct correlation with molecular cooperativity. These results call for a conceptually new approach to the analysis of the mechanism of the glass transition and to the role of molecular coopertaivity in slowing down of structural relaxation.