https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2010-01320-2
Regular Article
Glassy dynamics in nanometer thin layers of polystyrene
1 Institute for Experimental Physics I, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
2 Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany
3 University of Massachusets Amherst, Amherst MA, USA
a e-mail: kremer@physik.uni-leipzig.de
Received:
1
September
2010
Revised:
14
September
2010
Published online:
12
November
2010
Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) and Ellipsometry are combined to study the glassy dynamics of nanometric layers (≥ 5 nm) of polystyrene. For the former, two types of sample arrangement are applied, that is, the conventional method where evaporated metal electrodes are used and a novel technique in which insulating silica nanostructures serve as spacers between highly conducting doped silicon counter electrodes. Within the limits of the experimental accuracy (± 2 K) both approaches, BDS and Ellipsometry, deliver the coinciding result that – compared to the bulk – the glassy dynamics is not shifted. Furthermore the dielectric measurements do not indicate any broadening of the relaxation time distribution function, independent of the sample geometry employed.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2010
