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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
A Nyquist analysis of glassy dynamics, aging, and discrete basins of attraction in a small system
Prerna Sharma1, Shankar Ghosh, S Bhattacharya
1Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400-005, India. prerna@tifr.res.in
Abstract:
The process of attachment of a deformable polystyrene colloidal particle to a planar substrate shows features of slow relaxation and aging, typically observed in many-body disordered and glassy systems. This slow dynamics is attributed to the presence of polymeric tethers constituting a few internal degrees of freedom. The effects of these few degrees of freedom are revealed by a Nyquist analysis of the data that demonstrate the existence of only a few discernible basins of attraction as the system reaches the ground state and thus provides a minimal model of complexity and glassy dynamics.
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