New microscopic mechanism for secondary relaxation in glasses

The dynamics of simple molecular systems showing glassy properties has been explored by dielectric spectroscopy and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) on the halogenomethanes CBr2Cl2 and CBrCl3 in their low-temperature monoclinic phases. The dielectric spectra display features which correspond to alpha- and beta-relaxation processes, commonly observed in canonical glass formers. NQR experiments, also performed in the ergodic monoclinic phase of CCl4, enable the determination of the microscopic mechanism underlying the beta dynamics in these simple model glasses: Molecules that are nonequivalent with respect to their molecular environment perform reorientational jumps at different time scales. Thus our findings reveal another mechanism that can give rise to typical beta-relaxation behavior, raising some doubt about the existence of a universal explanation of this phenomenon.