Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy in Neat and Binary Molecular Glass Formers. Frequency and Time Domain Spectroscopy, Non-Resonant Spectral Hole Burning
Thomas Blochowicz
ISBN 978-3-8325-0320-8
241 pages, year of publication: 2003
price: 40.50 €
Neat and binary molecular glass formers are investigated by
means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy with the aim of
gaining a systematic understanding of the molecular slowing down, which
is characteristic for the glass transition. By combining frequency and
time domain techniques a dynamic range from 10
-6, Hz up to
10
9, Hz is covered. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that
different types of secondary relaxations may appear
during the process of supercooling. In certain simple glass formers such secondary
processes are clearly of intermolecular origin, and it turns out
that in mixtures of small and large molecules
secondary relaxations can be systematically altered by changing the
concentration of the constituents. Thus, the relation between
different types of secondary processes may be clarified.
It is typical of glass forming substances that the decay of orientational
correlations is non-exponential, and, correspondingly, the
dielectric loss spectra are broadened as compared to a simple Debye-like
relaxation process. The latter effect is particularly pronounced in
binary glass formers, and one aim of the present work is to provide
and apply an appropriate tool for a line shape analysis of the relaxation spectra in
both neat end binary systems. On the other hand, the nature of
spectral broadening is investigated by means of non-resonant
dielectric hole burning, which allows to distinguish
between heterogeneous and homogeneous dynamics in a system. It turns out that inbinary glass formers dynamic heterogeneities are particularly pronounced and
that the effects of dielectric hole burning in both neat and binary
systems are very well described within the framework of a model of
selective local heating.