Exploring the dynamics about the glass transition by muon spin relaxation and muon spin rotation

The capability of muon spin rotation and muon spin relaxation to explore dynamics in the vicinity of the glass transition is illustrated by results pertaining to three materials exhibiting two different glass-forming abilities. Measurements under transverse magnetic fields enable us to monitor the dynamics of muonium-labelled closed-shell molecules within the microsecond range. The results display the onset of stochastic molecular motions taking place upon crossing from below the glass-transition temperature. In turn, the molecular dynamics of radicals formed by addition of atomic muonium to unsaturated organic molecules can also be explored up to far shorter times by means of relaxation measurements under longitudinal fields. The technique is then shown to be capable of singling out stochastic reorientational motions from others, which usually are strongly coupled to them and usually dominate the material response when measured using higher-frequency probes such as neutron and light scattering.