标题： 隐藏的休眠阶段介导无序物质中的玻璃转变 显示英文标题

标题： Hidden dormant phase mediating the glass transition in disordered matter

摘要： 金属玻璃是一种具有结构无序的“冻结液体”，它保留了退化的自由能而没有自发对称性破缺从而成为固体。 半个世纪以来，这种令人费解的结构引发了关于结构无序如何影响玻璃-液体相变动力学的基本问题，但这些问题仍未有直接证据解答。 在这项研究中，通过使用X射线自由电子激光器的单脉冲时间分辨成像，我们可视化了玻璃到液体的转变过程，揭示了一个之前隐藏的潜伏相，该相在两个相之间的交叉区域中没有涉及任何宏观体积变化。 尽管在宏观上不活跃，但在纳米尺度上发生了重新分布，形成了通道状的低密度带，驱动了玻璃态转变。 通过提供直接的微观证据，这项工作为无序材料中的相变过程提供了新的视角，这一视角可以扩展到其他复杂系统中的各种液相和固相。 显示英文摘要

摘要： Metallic glass is a frozen liquid with structural disorder that retains degenerate free energy without spontaneous symmetry breaking to become a solid. For over half a century, this puzzling structure has raised fundamental questions about how structural disorder impacts glass-liquid phase transition kinetics, which remain elusive without direct evidence. In this study, through single-pulse, time-resolved imaging using X-ray free-electron lasers, we visualized the glass-to-liquid transition, revealing a previously hidden dormant phase that does not involve any macroscopic volume change within the crossover regime between the two phases. Although macroscopically inactive, nanoscale redistribution occurs, forming channeld low-density bands within this dormant phase that drives the glass transition. By providing direct microscopic evidence, this work presents a new perspective on the phase transition process in disordered materials, which can be extended to various liquid and solid phases in other complex systems.