Liquid-like versus stress-driven dynamics in a metallic glass former observed by temperature scanning X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy

Since several decades, the dynamics and vitrification kinetics of supercooled liquids are the subject of active research in science and engineering. Profiting from modern detector technology and highly brilliant fourth-generation synchrotron radiation, we apply temperature scanning X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) to probe the dynamics of a Pt-based metallic glass former in the glass, glass transition region, and supercooled liquid, covering up to six orders of magnitude in timescales. Our data demonstrates that the structural α-relaxation process is still observable in the glass, although it is partially masked by a faster source of decorrelation observed at atomic scale. We present an approach that interprets these findings as the superposition of heterogeneous liquid-like and stress-driven ballistic-like atomic motions. This work not only extends the dynamical range probed by standard isothermal XPCS but also adds a different view on the α-relaxation across the glass transition and provides insights into the anomalous, compressed temporal decay of the density-density correlation functions observed in metallic glasses and many out-of-equilibrium soft materials.