β-relaxation in glass forming systems

Abstract

As soon as crystallization is suspended at constant pressure, cooling liquids turn inevitably into rigid amorphous solids, i.e. glasses. The process is a universal phenomenon in nature, termed as glass transition involving many fundamental problems in many-body interaction system and material science. Among the decades research on the glass transition, the universality of β-relaxation, its mechanism and its effects on the understanding of liquids and glasses have been studied argumentatively. In this paper we review the research progress of β-relaxation and also try to point out the tendency of β-relaxation study in future.