Hidden dormant phase mediating the glass transition in disordered matter

Metallic glass is a frozen liquid with structural disorder that retains degenerate free energy without spontaneous symmetry breaking to become a solid. For over half a century, this puzzling structure has raised fundamental questions about how structural disorder impacts glass-liquid phase transition kinetics, which remain elusive without direct evidence. In this study, through single-pulse, time-resolved imaging using X-ray free-electron lasers, we visualized the glass-to-liquid transition, revealing a previously hidden dormant phase that does not involve any macroscopic volume change within the crossover regime between the two phases. Although macroscopically inactive, nanoscale redistribution occurs, forming channeld low-density bands within this dormant phase that drives the glass transition. By providing direct microscopic evidence, this work presents a new perspective on the phase transition process in disordered materials, which can be extended to various liquid and solid phases in other complex systems.

Eunyoung Park, Sinwoo Kim, Melody M. Wang, Junha Hwang, Sung Yun Lee, Jaeyong Shin, Seung-Phil Heo, Jungchan Choi, Heemin Lee, Dogeun Jang, Minseok Kim, Kyung Sook Kim, Sangsoo Kim, Intae Eom, Daewoong Nam, X. Wendy Gu, Changyong Song · 2024