Geometrical Supercooling of Liquids in Porous Glass

Abstract

The supercooling and freezing of a restricted liquid has been studied by the probing of its molecular dynamics with picosecond optical techniques. A newly developed transparent porous host material makes it possible to study the liquid viscosity as a function of the confining pore radius and temperature. The observed behavior is remarkably different from that of an ordinary liquid, and can be interpreted in terms of a simple model.