Penetration of surface effects on structural relaxation and particle hops in glassy films

Zhai, Qiang, Deng, Hai-Yao ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6065-483X, Gao, Xin-Yuan, Lam, Leo S. I., Yang, Sen, Yan, Ke and Lam, Chi-Hang 2025. Penetration of surface effects on structural relaxation and particle hops in glassy films. The Journal of Chemical Physics 162 (23) , 234502. 10.1063/5.0271966

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Abstract

A free surface induces enhanced dynamics in glass formers. We study the dynamical enhancement of glassy films with a distinguishable-particle lattice model of glass free of elastic effects. We demonstrate that the thickness of the surface mobile layer depends on temperature differently under different definitions, although all are based on local structure relaxation rate. The rate can be fitted to a double exponential form with an exponential-of-power-law tail. Our approach and results exclude elasticity as the unique mechanism for the tail. Layer-resolved particle hopping rate, potentially a key measure for activated hopping, is also studied but it exhibits much shallower surface effects.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	American Institute of Physics
ISSN:	0021-9606
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 June 2025
Date of Acceptance:	24 May 2025
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2025 09:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/179139

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