Dynamic anomaly in the glass transition region of orthoterphenyl

1991

We report on incoherent and coherent neutron scattering results in the supercooled liquid and the glassy regime of the van der Waals fluido-terphenyl using the backscattering and spin echo technique, respectively. A critical comparison of both techniques is presented. The data are analysed in the time domain assuming that microscopic correlation times (τ) scale with the viscosity η according to τ(T)∼η(T)/T. With this assumption we obtain an agreement with several predictions of mode coupling theory: the existence of a critical temperatureT c is shown, independently for both incoherent and coherent data, by a cusp in the temperature dependence of the Debye-Waller factorf Q (T). BelowT c fQ(T…