Spatiotemporal structures in aging and rejuvenating glasses.

Abstract

Complex spatiotemporal structures develop during the process of aging glasses after cooling and of rejuvenating glasses on heating. The key to understanding these structures is the interplay between the activated reconfiguration events that generate mobility and the transport of mobility. These effects are both accounted for by combining the random first-order transition theory of activated events with mode coupling theory in an inhomogeneous setting. The predicted modifications by mobility transport of the time course of the aging regime are modest. In contrast, the rejuvenation process is strongly affected through the propagation of fronts of enhanced mobility originating from the initial reconfiguration events. The structures in a rejuvenating glass resemble flames. An analysis along the lines of combustion theory provides an estimate of the front propagation speed. Heterogeneous rejuvenation naturally should occur for glasses with free surfaces. The analogy with combustion also provides a way of looking at the uptake of diluents by glasses described by case II and super case II diffusion.