Progress of de Gennes soft matrix glass model in non-crystalline solids and disordered materials

Abstract In 2002, de Gennes suggested a glass model to bring in a real contact between different schools of thought. The central assumption is that there is a low-density soft matrix in the hard-sphere molecules (HSMs). This study shows that the soft matrix is another spin system in de Gennes n = 0 theory. It is the largest dynamic nanoscale two-dimensional cluster composed of directional excited states of coupled electron pairs (CEPs). Molecular clustering is when two HSMs overlap and share a set of z-axis CEP excited states on their overlapping interface. Each z-axis excited state causes the two HSMs to suddenly acquire the identical spin in opposite directions (Ising-spin). The CEP excited state whose energy is three orders of magnitude smaller than the energy of the electronic excited state is embedded in the local random region without changing its randomness. Therefore, the molecule also has a low-density cubic lattice spin form composed of z-axis CEP excited states. Each low-density soft matrix causes its local volume to suddenly increase due to the appearance of the cavity space (free volume) in the center. The model shows that, from solid to liquid, there are only overlapping two-HSMs in the system, and the state difference at different temperatures lies only in the number density of the overlapping two-HSMs. The excluded volume interactions between polymer chain units are also the interface-excitation spin interactions. Reveals the origin of the relaxation time spectrum of metallic glass from picoseconds to infinity.