Inhomogeneous elastic response of silica glass

Using large scale molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the properties of the nonaffine 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 characterizi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2006-08, Vol.97 (5), p.055501-055501, Article 055501
Main Authors: Léonforte, F, Tanguy, A, Wittmer, J P, Barrat, J-L
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Using large scale molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the properties of the nonaffine 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.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.055501