Low-temperature specific heat and thermal conductivity of glycerol

Abstract

We have measured the thermal conductivity of glassy glycerol between 1.5 and 100 K, as well as the specific heat of both glassy and crystalline phases of glycerol between 0.5 and 25 K. We discuss both low-temperature properties of this typical molecular glass in terms of the soft-potential model. Our finding of an excellent agreement between its predictions and experimental data for these two independent measurements constitutes a robust proof of the capabilities of the soft-potential model to account for the low-temperature properties of glasses in a wide temperature range.