Enhanced diffusion and mobile fronts in a simple lattice model of glass-forming liquids

Abstract

The diffusion of mobility in bulk and thin film fluids near their glass transition is examined with a kinetic lattice model, and compared to recent experiments on bulk liquids and vapor-deposited thin film glasses. The “limited mobility” (LM) lattice model exhibits dynamic heterogeneity of mobility when the fluid is near its kinetic arrest transition; a finite-parameter second-order critical point in the LM model bearing strong resemblance to the glass transition in real fluids. The spatial heterogeneity of mobility near kinetic arrest leads to dynamics that violate the Stokes–Einstein relation. To make connections with experiment, LM model simulations of self-diffusion constants in fluids near kinetic arrest are compared to those in two organic glass-formers. In addition, simulations of mobility in films that have been temperature-jumped above kinetic arrest (starting from an arrested state) are carried out. The films develop a “front” of mobility at their free surface that progresses into the film interior at a constant rate, thereby mobilising the entire film to fluidity. The velocity of the front scales with the self-diffusion constant for analogous bulk systems—an observation consistent with experiments on vapor-deposited molecular thin films.