Relaxation kinetics of nanoscale indents in a polymer glass
Nanometer scale indents have been written in a cross-linked polystyrene sample, and their relaxation has been studied at annealing temperatures well below the glass transition of the polymer. The indents represent a highly nonequilibrium state of the polymer which is subjected to mechanical stress o...
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| Published in | Physical review letters Vol. 102; no. 11; p. 117801 |
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| Main Authors | , , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
United States
20.03.2009
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| Online Access | Get more information |
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| Summary: | Nanometer scale indents have been written in a cross-linked polystyrene sample, and their relaxation has been studied at annealing temperatures well below the glass transition of the polymer. The indents represent a highly nonequilibrium state of the polymer which is subjected to mechanical stress of up to 0.4 GPa and thermal quench rates on the order of 10{8} K/s during writing. It is shown that the relaxation towards equilibrium evolves logarithmically over more than 10 orders of magnitude in time. The relaxation kinetics are accurately described in terms of a thermally activated process with an energy barrier whose magnitude decreases linearly with the distance from equilibrium. |
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| ISSN: | 0031-9007 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.117801 |