Temperature-dependent two-state dynamics of individual cooperatively rearranging regions on a glass surface

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Oct 19;109(16):166103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.166103. Epub 2012 Oct 19.

Abstract

Cooperatively rearranging regions (CRRs) play a central role in the temperature dependence of glass dynamics. We record real-time atomic resolution movies of individual CRRs, while ramping their temperature. Between 295 and 326 K, well below the bulk glass transition temperature T(g), the rate coefficient for two-state hopping of CRRs increases over tenfold, yielding an Arrhenius activation barrier of ≈10k(B)T(g). By time resolving the dynamics of many individual CRRs, we show that highly stretched dynamics of the CRR ensemble results mainly from spatial heterogeneity, less from temporal heterogeneity of individual CRRs.