Origin of non-exponential relaxation in a crystalline ionic conductor: a multi-dimensional 109Ag NMR study

The origin of the non-exponential relaxation of silver ions in the crystalline ion conductor Ag7P3S11 is analyzed by comparing appropriate two-time and three-time 109Ag NMR correlation functions. The non-exponentiality is due to a rate distribution, i.e., dynamic heterogeneities, rather than to an intrinsic non-exponentiality. Thus, the data give no evidence for the relevance of correlated back-and-forth jumps on the timescale of the silver relaxation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dynamic heterogeneities in the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of simple spherical spin models

The response of spherical two-spin interaction models, the spherical ferromagnet (s-FM) and the spherical Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (s-SK) model, is calculated for the protocol of the so-called nonresonant hole burning experiment (NHB) for temperatures below the respective critical temperatures. It is shown that it is possible to select dynamic features in the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of both models, one of the hallmarks of dynamic heterogeneities. The behavior of the s-SK model and the s-FM in three dimensions is very similar, showing dynamic heterogeneities in the long time behavior, i.e. in the aging regime. The appearence of dynamic heterogeneities in the s-SK model explicitly demonstrates that these are not necessarily related to {\it spatial} heterogeneities. For the s-FM it is shown that the nature of the dynamic heterogeneities changes as a function of dimensionality. With incresing dimension the frequency selectivity of the NHB diminishes and the dynamics in the mean-field limit of the s-FM model becomes homogeneous.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Mechanical and dielectric relaxation spectra in seven highly viscous glass formers

Published dielectric and shear data of six molecular glass formers and one polymer are evaluated in terms of a spectrum of thermally activated processes, with the same barrier density for the retardation spectrum of shear and dielectrics. The viscosity, an independent parameter of the fit, seems to be related to the high-barrier cutoff time of the dielectric signal, in accordance with the idea of a renewal of the relaxing entities after this critical time. In the five cases where one can fit accurately, the temperature dependence of the high-barrier cutoff follows the shoving model. The Johari-Goldstein peaks, seen in four of our seven cases, are describable in terms of gaussians in the barrier density, superimposed on the high-frequency tail of the $\alpha$-process. Dielectric and shear measurements of the same substance find the same peak positions and widths of these gaussians, but in general a different weight.Comment: Contribution to the Ngai Fest issue of J. Non-Cryst. Solids; 8 pages, 8 figures, 30 reference

Electronic and optical properties of LiBC

LiBC, a semiconducting ternary borocarbide constituted of the lightest elements only, has been synthesized and characterized by x-ray powder diffraction, dielectric spectroscopy, and conductivity measurements. Utilizing an infrared microscope the phonon spectrum has been investigated in single crystals. The in-plane B-C stretching mode has been detected at 150 meV, noticeably higher than in AlB2, a non-superconducting isostructural analog of MgB2. It is this stretching mode, which reveals a strong electron-phonon coupling in MgB2, driving it into a superconducting state below 40 K, and is believed to mediate predicted high-temperature superconductivity in hole-doped LiBC [H. Rosner, A. Kitaigorodsky, and W. E. Pickett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 127001 (2002)].Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Landscape equivalent of the shoving model

It is shown that the shoving model expression for the average relaxation time of viscous liquids follows largely from a classical "landscape" estimation of barrier heights from curvature at energy minima. The activation energy involves both instantaneous bulk and shear moduli, but the bulk modulus contributes less than 8% to the temperature dependence of the activation energy. This reflects the fact that the physics of the two models are closely related.Comment: 4 page

Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy on Glass-Forming Propylene Carbonate

Dielectric spectroscopy covering more than 18 decades of frequency has been performed on propylene carbonate in its liquid and supercooled-liquid state. Using quasi-optic submillimeter and far-infrared spectroscopy the dielectric response was investigated up to frequencies well into the microscopic regime. We discuss the alpha-process whose characteristic timescale is observed over 14 decades of frequency and the excess wing showing up at frequencies some three decades above the peak frequency. Special attention is given to the high-frequency response of the dielectric loss in the crossover regime between alpha-peak and boson-peak. Similar to our previous results in other glass forming materials we find evidence for additional processes in the crossover regime. However, significant differences concerning the spectral form at high frequencies are found. We compare our results to the susceptibilities obtained from light scattering and to the predictions of various models of the glass transition.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Electronic Theory for the Nonlinear Magneto-Optical Response of Transition-Metals at Surfaces and Interfaces: Dependence of the Kerr-Rotation on Polarization and on the Magnetic Easy Axis

We extend our previous study of the polarization dependence of the nonlinear optical response to the case of magnetic surfaces and buried magnetic interfaces. We calculate for the longitudinal and polar configuration the nonlinear magneto-optical Kerr rotation angle. In particular, we show which tensor elements of the susceptibilities are involved in the enhancement of the Kerr rotation in nonlinear optics for different configurations and we demonstrate by a detailed analysis how the direction of the magnetization and thus the easy axis at surfaces and buried interfaces can be determined from the polarization dependence of the nonlinear magneto-optical response, since the nonlinear Kerr rotation is sensitive to the electromagnetic field components instead of merely the intensities. We also prove from the microscopic treatment of spin-orbit coupling that there is an intrinsic phase difference of 90$^{\circ }$ between tensor elements which are even or odd under magnetization reversal in contrast to linear magneto-optics. Finally, we compare our results with several experiments on Co/Cu films and on Co/Au and Fe/Cr multilayers. We conclude that the nonlinear magneto-optical Kerr-effect determines uniquely the magnetic structure and in particular the magnetic easy axis in films and at multilayer interfaces.Comment: 23 pages Revtex, preprintstyle, 2 uuencoded figure

Solidity of Viscous Liquids

Recent NMR experiments on supercooled toluene and glycerol by Hinze and Bohmer show that small rotation angles dominate with only few large molecular rotations. These results are here interpreted by assuming that viscous liquids are solid-like on short length scales. A characteristic length, the "solidity length", separates solid-like behavior from liquid-like behavior.Comment: Plain RevTex file, no figure

Energy landscape - a key concept for the dynamics of glasses and liquids

There is a growing belief that the mode coupling theory is the proper microscopic theory for the dynamics of the undercooled liquid above a critical temperature T_c. In addition, there is some evidence that the system leaves the saddlepoints of the energy landscape to settle in the valleys at this critical temperature. Finally, there is a microscopic theory for the entropy at the calorimetric glass transition T_g by Mezard and Parisi, which allows to calculate the Kauzmann temperature from the atomic pair potentials. The dynamics of the frozen glass phase is at present limited to phenomenological models. In the spirit of the energy landscape concept, one considers an ensemble of independent asymmetric double-well potentials with a wide distribution of barrier heights and asymmetries (ADWP or Gilroy-Phillips model). The model gives an excellent description of the relaxation of glasses up to about T_g/4. Above this temperature, the interaction between different relaxation centers begins to play a role. One can show that the interaction reduces the number of relaxation centers needed to bring the shear modulus down to zero by a factor of three.Comment: Contribution to the III Workshop on Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Supercooled Fluids, Glasses and Amorphous Materials, 22-27 September 2002, Pisa; 14 pages, 3 figures; Version 3 takes criticque at Pisa into account; final version 4 will be published in J.Phys.: Condens.Matte