Corresponding States of Structural Glass Formers

The variation with respect to temperature T of transport properties of 58 fragile structural glass forming liquids (68 data sets in total) are analyzed and shown to exhibit a remarkable degree of universality. In particular, super-Arrhenius behaviors of all super-cooled liquids appear to collapse to one parabola for which there is no singular behavior at any finite temperature. This behavior is bounded by an onset temperature To above which liquid transport has a much weaker temperature dependence. A similar collapse is also demonstrated, over the smaller available range, for existing numerical simulation data.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Updated References, Table Values, Submitted for Publicatio

Polarization-Resolved Ultrafast Polarizability Relaxation in Polar Aromatic Liquids

Ultrafast electron dynamics in 5 nm thick gold films have been investigated as a function of film morphology. The transient reflectivity data reveal a sub-100 fs rise time and a complex relaxation profile on the picosecond timescale. These data are discussed in terms of a modified two-temperature model of the electron dynamics accounting for the initial relaxation of the non-thermal population. The electron–phonon coupling may be sensitive to film morphology. The possible origin of this behaviour is discussed and results are placed in the context of enhanced photochemistry on thin metal films