Evidence of growing spatial correlations during the aging of glassy glycerol

We have measured, as a function of the age t(a), the aging of the nonlinear dielectric susceptibility χ(3) of glycerol below the glass transition. Whereas the linear susceptibility can be accurately accounted for in terms of an age dependent relaxation time τ(α)(t(a)), this scaling breaks down for χ(3), suggesting an increase of the amplitude of χ(3). This is a strong indication that the number N(corr) of molecules involved in relaxation events increases with t(a). For T=0.96×T(g), we find that N(corr) increases by ~10% when t(a) varies from 1 to 100 ks. This sheds new light on the relation between length scales and time scales in glasses.