Inhomogeneous elastic response of silica glass

Abstract

Using large scale molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the properties of the {\em non-affine} displacement field induced by macroscopic uniaxial deformation of amorphous silica,a strong glass according to Angell's classification. We demonstrate the existence of a length scale $\xi$ characterizing the correlations of this field (corresponding to a volume of about 1000 atoms), and compare its structure to the one observed in a standard fragile model glass. The "Boson-peak'' anomaly of the density of states can be traced back in both cases to elastic inhomogeneities on wavelengths smaller than $\xi$, where classical continuum elasticity becomes simply unapplicable.

References in corpus (1)

• Effect of physical aging on the low-frequency vibrational density of states of a glassy polymer

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Intermediate phase, network demixing, boson and floppy modes, and compositional trends in glass transition temperatures of binary AsxS1-x system
• Amorphous silica modeled with truncated and screened Coulomb interactions: A molecular dynamics simulation study
• Hypersound damping in vitreous silica measured by picosecond acoustics
• Particle displacements in the elastic deformation of amorphous materials: local fluctuations vs. non-affine field
• Revisiting the slow dynamics of a silica melt using Monte Carlo simulations
• Non-affine deformations of inherent structure as signature of cooperativity in supercooled liquids