Universal scaling of the relaxation near a model glass transition

Abstract

We report dielectric measurements of the orientationally disordered crystalline phase of cyclo-octanol over the frequency range 1.3 mHz–5.5 kHz. The data show that cyclo-octanol exhibits a slow relaxation that is indistinguishable in every respect from that exhibited by a supercooled liquid near its glass transition. In particular, the data obey a scaling relationship reported by Nagel and co-workers for a variety of structural glasses. These results show that cyclo-octanol is an ideal model system for studies of the glass transition, and suggest that the scaling relationship is far more universal than expected.