Slow Processes in Supercooled o-Terphenyl: Relaxation and Decoupling

Abstract

We mapped the relaxation times of inter- and intramolecular correlations in o-terphenyl by a quasielastic scattering method using nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation. From the obtained map, we found that the slow β process is decoupled from the α process at 278 K, and this temperature is clearly below the previous decoupling temperature of 290 K, at which the α-relaxation dynamics changes. Then, it was also concluded that sufficient solidlike condition achieved by further cooling from 290 K is required to decouple the slow β process from the α process and, due to the difference of the length scales between the α and the slow β processes, these two averaged relaxation times <γ> are concluded not to cross as an extrapolation assumed so far. Furthermore, evidence of the restricted dynamics of the slow β process could be obtained as an anomalous momentum transfer (q) dependence of <γ>(<γ> ∝ q-2.9) at 265 K, observed at q values of 18–48 nm-1.