Non-Newtonian flow of an ultralow-melting chalcogenide liquid in strongly confined geometry

Abstract

The flow of high-viscosity liquids inside micrometer-size holes can be substantially different from the flow in the bulk, non-confined state of the same liquid. Such non-Newtonian behavior can be employed to generate structural anisotropy in the frozen-in liquid, i.e., in the glassy state. Here, we report on the observation of non-Newtonian flow of an ultralow melting chalcogenide glass inside a silica microcapillary, leading to a strong deviation of the shear viscosity from its value in the bulk material. In particular, we experimentally show that the viscosity is radius-dependent, which is a clear indication that the microscopic rearrangement of the glass network needs to be considered if the lateral confinement falls below a certain limit. The experiments have been conducted using pressure-assisted melt filling, which provides access to the rheological properties of high-viscosity melt flow under previously inaccessible experimental conditions. The resulting flow-induced structural anisotropy can pave the way towards integration of anisotropic glasses inside hybrid photonic waveguides.