近日，法国格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学Beatrice Ruta团队报道了金属玻璃中异常原子运动的长度依赖关系。2026年4月6日出版的《自然—物理学》杂志发表了这项成果。

建立玻璃材料中的微观结构–动力学关系对于发展完整的理论至关重要，但由于难以获取相关的时间和空间尺度，这一直具有挑战性。

研究组探测了三种金属玻璃中的密度涨落，并描述了其动力学的复杂组织形式，为在原子尺度上普遍观察到的金属玻璃中的反常压缩弛豫提供了一个框架。他们证明，这种快于指数衰减的运动仅发生在以中程有序为特征的长度尺度上，其根源在于刚硬区域在玻璃化转变过程中冻结时储存的内部应力。

在更大的长度尺度上，动力学变得平稳且非均匀，拉伸指数形式的弛豫反映了不同区域统计平均后的运动。研究组还识别出第二个独立的弛豫过程，与持续的类液态运动有关，其强度在大波长下增强。这些发现揭示了玻璃材料中弛豫过程的协同、多尺度本质。

附：英文原文

Title: Length-scale dependence of the anomalous atomic motion in metallic glasses

Author: Shen, Jie, Yang, Fan, Cornet, Antoine, Pineda, Eloi, Martens, Kirsten, Chushkin, Yuriy, Zontone, Federico, Festi, Irene, Ronca, Alberto, Neuber, Nico, Frey, Maximilian, Busch, Ralf, Cammarata, Marco, di Michiel, Marco, Vaughan, Gavin, Sprung, Michael, Ruta, Beatrice

Issue&Volume: 2026-04-06

Abstract: Establishing microscopic structure–dynamics relations in glasses is essential for developing a comprehensive theory yet remains challenging owing to limited access to the relevant time and length scales. Here we probe density fluctuations in three metallic glasses and describe a complex organization of the dynamics that provides a framework of the anomalous compressed relaxation universally observed in metallic glasses at the atomic level. We demonstrate that this faster-than-exponential motion occurs only at length scales characterized by medium-range order and originates from internal stresses stored during the freezing of rigid domains across the glass transition. At larger length scales, the dynamics becomes stationary and heterogeneous, with stretched exponential relaxations reflecting the statistically averaged motions of different domains. We also identify a second independent relaxation, associated with persistent liquid-like motions, whose strength increases at large wavelengths. These findings reveal the cooperative, multiscale nature of relaxations in glasses.

DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03228-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-026-03228-0