Glass Transition in Confined Geometry

Abstract

Extending mode-coupling theory, we elaborate a microscopic theory for the glass transition of liquids confined between two parallel flat hard walls. The theory contains the standard MCT equations in bulk and in two dimensions as limiting cases and requires as input solely the equilibrium density profile and the structure factors of the fluid in confinement. We evaluate the phase diagram as a function of the distance of the plates for the case of a hard sphere fluid and obtain an oscillatory behavior of the glass transtion line as a result of the structural changes related to layering.

4 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in print)

References in corpus (7)

• Inhomogeneous Mode-Coupling Theory and Growing Dynamic Length in Supercooled Liquids
• Density functional theory for hard-sphere mixtures: the White-Bear version Mark II
• Layering and position-dependent diffusive dynamics of confined fluids
• Liquid-glass transition of a fluid confined in a disordered porous matrix: A mode-coupling theory
• Mixing effects for the structural relaxation in binary hard-sphere liquids
• Dynamic Glass Transition in Two Dimensions
• Available states and available space: Static properties that predict dynamics of confined fluids