In this research novel scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques will be used to measure the fluctuations in the dielectric and visco-elastic properties of organic glasses, polymers, and other materials as a function of frequency, time, field and position. The direct study of nano-scale fluctuations in glasses could provide a detailed picture of the dynamical processes leading to non-exponential relaxation, diverging relaxation times, and scaling at the glass transition. These investigations will address critical issues such as the length scale and nature of the molecular cooperativity, and the importance of heterogeneity and its time evolution. Statistical measures which characterize glassy cooperativity can be directly compared with those provided by simulations. Dielectric fluctuations will also be used to investigate predicted violations of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) in macroscopic aging glasses. Although never observed in experiments, these non-equilibrium FDT violations may provide a means to probe the equilibrium glass order parameter, and are strongly model dependent. These researches address a fundamental unresolved issue in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics as well as test various glass transition models. Graduate students and postdocs participate in these investigations. %%% This research deals with fundamental problems of how liquids and polymers freeze into disordered solids, i.e., glasses. Though much work in the past has been done on these problems, present technology employing scanning probe microscopy now allow such studies to be performed on a near-atomic/molecular level. In this manner it was found that the physical properties of complex materials can vary dramatically when probed at near molecular length scales. This research stands at the forefront of one of the areas of contemporary condensed matter physics and is expected to make significant contributions to our understanding on the behavior of complex materials and thus to future technology. This research provides excellent opportunities for the training of graduate students and post doctoral research associates in an emerging area of condensed matter physics and materials science, and thereby contributes to the creation of an expert cadre of physicists and materials scientists for employment in the 21st Century. ***
