[en] If quenched fast enough, a liquid is able to avoid crystallization and will remain in a metastable supercooled state down to the glass transition, with an important increase in viscosity and relaxation time towards equilibrium upon further cooling [1,2]. There are important differences in the way liquids relax as they approach the glass transition, rapid or slow variation in dynamic quantities under moderate temperature changes, and a simple means to quantify such variations is provided by the concept of "fragility". Here, we report molecular dynamics simulations of a typical network-forming glass, and find that the relaxation behaviour of the supercooled liquid is strongly correlated to the variation of rigidity with temperature and the spatial distribution of the corresponding topological constraints which, ultimately connect to fragility minima . This permits extending the fragility concept to aspects of topology/rigidity, and to the degree of homogeneity of the atomic-sale interactions for a variety of structural glasses.
Research center :
SPIN CESAME
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Yildirim, Can ; Université de Liège > Département de physique > Physique expérimentale des matériaux nanostructurés
Raty, Jean-Yves ; Université de Liège > Département de physique > Physique expérimentale des matériaux nanostructurés
Micoulaut, Mathieu
Language :
English
Title :
Revealing the role of network rigidity on the fragility evolution of glass-forming liquids
Publication date :
30 March 2016
Journal title :
Nature Communications
eISSN :
2041-1723
Publisher :
Nature Publishing Group
Volume :
7
Issue :
2016
Pages :
11086
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Tags :
Tier-1 supercomputer CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif
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