Tests and Further Development of the Interstitialcy Theory of Liquids and Glasses

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The principal goals of this program are to test and develop further the Interstitialcy Theory of liquids and glasses. This will be done with critical experiments on the interstitialcy concentration dependence of the shear modulus and volume, the kinetics of the non-linear, non-exponential aging effects found near the glass temperature, and the Boson Peak arising from interstitialcy resonant normal modes. According to the theory, liquids are crystals containing a few percent of self-interstitials in thermal equilibrium, while glasses are frozen liquids. If the behavior predicted by the theory is confirmed quantitatively, the results will add to our microscopic understanding of liquids and glasses. This information could be of importance to technologies based on amorphous materials. The post doctoral associate involved in this program can be expected to play a leading role in the development of this emerging area, while the students will be well prepared for a variety of career choices as a result of their training in leading-edge technologies. The principal goals of this program are to test and develop further a recent microscopic theory of liquids and glasses with several critical experiments. For this work, the extraordinary sensitivity of measurements of the shear modulus, which plays a central role in the theory, will be exploited. If the behavior predicted by the theory on the temperature, concentration and aging dependence of the thermodynamic and kinetic properties is confirmed quantitatively by these experiments, the results would add considerable to our microscopic understanding of liquids and glasses. This could provide information relevant to many fields of science (physics, chemistry, materials science, geology and biology) as well as technologies based on amorphous materials. The post doctoral associate involved in this program can be expected to play a leading role in the development of this emerging area, while the students will be well prepared for a variety of career choices as a result of their training in leading-edge technologies.