Understanding the emergence of the boson peak in molecular glasses

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 215 - 11
• Main Authors: González-Jiménez, Mario, Barnard, Trent, Russell, Ben A., Tukachev, Nikita V., Javornik, Uroš, Hayes, Laure-Anne, Farrell, Andrew J., Guinane, Sarah, Senn, Hans M., Smith, Andrew J., Wilding, Martin, Mali, Gregor, Nakano, Motohiro, Miyazaki, Yuji, McMillan, Paul, Sosso, Gabriele C., Wynne, Klaas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.01.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/125; 140/131; 140/133; 639/301/119/1002; 639/766/119/1002; Chemistry; Heat; Humanities and Social Sciences; Ligands; Liquids; Molecular clusters; Molecular dynamics; multidisciplinary; Raman spectra; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Simulation; Specific heat; Symmetry; Vibrational spectra; Vitrification; X-ray scattering

A common feature of glasses is the “boson peak”, observed as an excess in the heat capacity over the crystal or as an additional peak in the terahertz vibrational spectrum. The microscopic origins of this peak are not well understood; the emergence of locally ordered structures has been put forward...