Abstract
Glassy films of methyl-m-toluate have been vapor deposited onto a substrate equipped with interdigitated electrodes, facilitating in situ dielectric relaxation measurements during and after deposition. Samples of 200nm thickness have been deposited at rates of 0.1 nm/s at a variety of deposition temperatures between 40K and Tg = 170K. With increasing depth below the surface, the dielectric loss changes gradually from a value reflecting a mobile surface layer to that of the kinetically stable glass. The thickness of this more mobile layer varies from below 1 to beyond 10nm as the deposition temperature is increased, and its average fictive temperature is near Tg for all deposition temperatures. Judged by the dielectric loss, the liquid-like portion of the surface layer exceeds a thickness of 1nm only for deposition temperatures above 0.8Tg, where near-equilibrium glassy states are obtained. After deposition, the dielectric loss of the material positioned about 5-30nm below the surface decreases for thousands of seconds of annealing time, whereas the bulk of the film remains unchanged.
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