Zusammenfassung
Investigating dynamic correlations between molecules in supercooled liquids and glasses is one of the major tasks for experimentalists involved in the glass transition physics. To estimate experimentally the size ($N_corr$) of those dynamic heterogeneities which should grow when temperature goes down to $T_g$, we have developed two experimental methods. The first one consists in measuring accurately the temperature dependence of the linear dielectric susceptibility. It has been shown that $N_corr$ is linked to the square of $d()/dT$ ($\epsilon$: dielectric constant, $T$: temperature, $ømega$: frequency). We measured $\epsilon( )$ every $1K$, $40K$ over $T_g$ for glycerol and every $0.5K$, $20K$ over $T_g$ for propylene carbonate. The evolution of $N_corr$ we deduced shows that it increases by a factor $3$ on our scanned interval. We present here the experimental aspects of this work . The second method links $N_corr$ to the non-linear dielectric susceptibility. We found that our measurement is limited by the non-linear response of standard electronics. Consequently we could only obtain an upper limit on $N_corr$ from our first third harmonic measurements. A new device improves our sensitivity.
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