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The ultimate fate of supercooled liquids.

ABSTRACT: In recent years it has become widely accepted that a dynamical length scale ?(?) plays an important role in supercooled liquids near the glass transition. We examine the implications of the interplay between the growing ?(?) and the size of the crystal nucleus, ?(M), which shrinks on cooling. We argue that at low temperatures where ?(?) > ?(M) a new crystallization mechanism emerges, enabling rapid development of a large scale web of sparsely connected crystallinity. Though we predict this web percolates the system at too low a temperature to be easily seen in the laboratory, there are noticeable residual effects near the glass transition that can account for several previously observed unexplained phenomena of deeply supercooled liquids including Fischer clusters and anomalous crystal growth near T(g).

SUBMITTER: Stevenson JD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3174050 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The ultimate fate of supercooled liquids.

Stevenson Jacob D JD Wolynes Peter G PG

The journal of physical chemistry. A 20101220 16

In recent years it has become widely accepted that a dynamical length scale ξ(α) plays an important role in supercooled liquids near the glass transition. We examine the implications of the interplay between the growing ξ(α) and the size of the crystal nucleus, ξ(M), which shrinks on cooling. We argue that at low temperatures where ξ(α) > ξ(M) a new crystallization mechanism emerges, enabling rapid development of a large scale web of sparsely connected crystallinity. Though we predict this web p ...[more]

PMID: 21171637

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