Revealing the fast atomic motion of network glasses with coherent X-rays
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - 09:12
in Physics & Chemistry
The remarkable properties of glasses are due to their dynamical arrested state in which relaxations occur on time scales too large to be observed, or so it was believed. Now researchers have discovered the existence of unexpected fast atomic rearrangements occurring within a few minutes for the atomic motion of a silicate glass, even while it was in the deep glassy state. These results modify our conception of the glassy state and call for a new microscopic theory.