Aging dynamics in a colloidal glass of Laponite

The aging dynamics of colloidal suspensions of Laponite, a synthetic clay, is investigated using dynamic light stattering (DLS) and viscometry after a quench into the glassy phase. DLS allows to follow the diffusion of Laponite particles and reveals that there are two modes of relaxation. The fast mode corresponds to a rapid diffusion of particles within "cages" formed by the neighboring particles. The slow mode corresponds to escape from the cages: its average relaxation time increases exponentially fast with the age of the glass. In addition, the slow mode has a broad distribution of relaxation times, its distribution becoming larger as the system ages. Measuring the concomitant increase of viscosity as the system ages, we can relate the slowing down of the particle dynamics to the viscosity.Comment: 9 pages, 8 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Aging in a topological spin glass

We have examined the nonconventional spin glass phase of the 2-dimensional kagome antiferromagnet (H_3 O) Fe_3 (SO_4)_2 (OH)_6 by means of ac and dc magnetic measurements. The frequency dependence of the ac susceptibility peak is characteristic of a critical slowing down at Tg ~ 18K. At fixed temperature below Tg, aging effects are found which obey the same scaling law as in spin glasses or polymers. However, in clear contrast with conventional spin glasses, aging is remarkably insensitive to temperature changes. This particular type of dynamics is discussed in relation with theoretical predictions for highly frustrated non-disordered systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Chaotic, memory and cooling rate effects in spin glasses: Is the Edwards-Anderson model a good spin glass?

We investigate chaotic, memory and cooling rate effects in the three dimensional Edwards-Anderson model by doing thermoremanent (TRM) and AC susceptibility numerical experiments and making a detailed comparison with laboratory experiments on spin glasses. In contrast to the experiments, the Edwards-Anderson model does not show any trace of re-initialization processes in temperature change experiments (TRM or AC). A detailed comparison with AC relaxation experiments in the presence of DC magnetic field or coupling distribution perturbations reveals that the absence of chaotic effects in the Edwards-Anderson model is a consequence of the presence of strong cooling rate effects. We discuss possible solutions to this discrepancy, in particular the smallness of the time scales reached in numerical experiments, but we also question the validity of the Edwards-Anderson model to reproduce the experimental results.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. The original version of the paper has been split in two parts. The second part is now available as cond-mat/010224

De fysica van polymere materialen

Rede, uitgesproken ter gelegenheid van de aanvaarding van het ambt van buitengewoon hoogleraar in de fysica van polymere materialen aan de Universitelt Twente op donderdag 22 januarì 1987 door Dr.lr. L.C.E. Struik

Volume relaxation in polymers

Volume relaxation and related phenomena in the glass transition of polymers are discussed. During volume relaxation, the molecular transport mobility changes. First, this in principle implies non-linearity of the volume relaxation process itself. The apparent contradiction of this fact with the linearity domain found experimentally by Goldbach (1) could be explained. Secondly, during volume relaxation the viscoelastic processes change their location in time scale, due to the change in molecular transport mobility. This is demonstrated by experimental results for poly(styrene). The change of mechanical properties during volume relaxation strongly increased with a decrease in frequency of the mechanical deformation. Consequently one should also be careful with mechanical measurements in the glass transition range, especially when performed at lower frequencies. A semi-automatic method to perform simultaneously a large series of isothermal volume relaxation measurements is presented. © 1966 Dr. Dietrich Steinkopff Verlag

Physical aging in amorphous polymers and other materials

Applied Science

Logarithmic clock, an electronic device for producing a discrete logarithmic time scale

An electronic device for producing a discrete logarithmic time scale has been developed. It produces a series of electrical pulses at time