Accessing ultrastable glass via a bulk transformation
As a medium to understand the nature of glass transition, ultrastable glasses have garnered increasing attention for their significance in fundamental science and technological applications. Most studies have produced ultrastable glasses through a surface-controlled process using physical vapor deposition. Here, we demonstrate an approach to accessing ultrastable glasses via the glass-to-glass transition, a bulk transformation that is inherently free from size constraints and anisotropy. The resulting ultrastable glass exhibits a significantly enhanced density (improved by 2.3%), along with high thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanical stability. Furthermore, we propose that this method of accessing ultrastable glasses is general for metallic glasses, based on the examination of the competitive relationship between the glass-to-glass transition and crystallization. This strategy is expected to facilitate the proliferation of the ultrastable glass family, helping to resolve the instability issues of glass materials and devices and deepen our understanding of glasses and the glass transition.
Authors
- K. Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8686-4296)
- Hengwei Luan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0095-4528)
- Wenhui Guo
- Yang Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5369-9933)
- Hengtong Bu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6517-1984)
- Qiaoshi Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5960-1378)
- Pan Gong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3833-8440)
- Hsiang-Shun Chang
- Lingxiang Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7859-9047)
- Jingyi Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4279-4832)
- Ranbin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6702-655X)
- You Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3639-2515)
- H. B. Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2267-0227)
- Yung-Hsuan Su
- Jili Jia
Institutions
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Research Institute (CN)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-01-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55367-8
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Material Dynamics and Properties
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.18
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- Tsinghua University