Ergodicity breaking of an inorganic glass in aging near $T_g$ probed by elasticity relaxation

Abstract

We performed a series of aging experiments of an inorganic glass (As${}_2$Se${}_3$) at a temperature $T_2$ near the glass transition point $T_g$ by first relaxing it at $T_1$. The relaxation of Young's modulus was monitored, which was(almost if not ideally) exponential with a $T_1$-dependent relaxation time $\tau (T_1)$. We demostrate the Kovacs' paradox for the first time in an inorganic glasses. Associated with the divergence of $\tau$, the quasi-equilibrated Young's modulus $E_{\infty }$ does not converge either. An elastic model of relaxation time and a Mori-Tanaka analysis of $E_{\infty }$ lead to a similar estimate of the persistent memory of the history, ergodicity breaking within the accessible experimental time. Experiments with different $T_2$ exhibits a critical temperature $T_p\sim T_g$, i.e., when $T_2>T_p$, both $\tau$ and $E_{\infty }$ converge.

7 pages, 5 figures

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