Projects

The research unit investigates the combined effects of strong external fields and slow cooperative dynamics in glass-forming systems in order to understand the complex structural, relaxational, and transport phenomena under conditions far from equilibrium.

The projects of the research unit use strong mechanical and electric fields to obtain insights into the particle motion at the glass transition. Investigated materials range from supercooled alloys, colloidal dispersions, molecular glass formers to ionic fluids, granular media, and disordered media. Experimental techniques include mechanical, dielectric, and conductivity spectroscopy, while theoretical methods include variants of nonequilibrium computer simulations, mode coupling and kinetic theory, potential energy landscape, as well as continuous time random walk analysis.

Project overview

• Nonlinear effects induced by mechanical stresses in glass forming systems far from equilibrium
  (Konrad Samwer, I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen)
• One and two-component colloidal glasses under mechanically imposed stress
  (Stefan Egelhaaf and Marco Laurati, IPkM, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)
• Nonlinear mechanical response of supercooled melts under applied stress
  (Thomas Voigtmann and Matthias Fuchs, Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, DLR Köln and Fachbereich Physik, Universität Konstanz)
• Nonlinear forced motion of particles in a glass-forming system
  (Andreas Heuer, Institut für Physikalische Chemie, WWU Münster)
• Slow dynamics in homogeneously driven granular systems
  (Matthias Sperl and Annette Zippelius, Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, DLR Köln and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Göttingen)
• Nonlinear transport in ionic liquids and in their mixtures with non–ionic liquids
  (Bernhard Roling, Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg)
• Nonlinear response in strongly heterogeneous glass-forming mixtures and ion conductors
  (Jürgen Horbach, Thomas Voigtmann, and Thomas Franosch, Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, DLR Köln and Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
• Investigation of nonlinear effects in glassy matter using dielectric methods
  (Peter Lunkenheimer and Alois Loidl, Experimental Physics V, Universität Augsburg)