Probing nonaffine expansion with light scattering.

Abstract

In disordered materials under mechanical stress, the induced deformation can deviate from the affine one, even in the elastic regime. The nonaffine contribution was observed and characterized in numerical simulations for various systems and reported experimentally in colloidal gels. However, low amplitude of nonaffinity and its local character makes the experimental study challenging. We present a method based on the phase compensation of the wave scattered from a thermally dilated amorphous material using fine wavelength tuning of the optical probe beam. Using a glass frit as a sample, we ensure complete reversibility of the material deformation, while experimental observations enable us to confirm the occurrence of nonaffinity in the elastic regime. We develop a model for the coupled effect of the thermal expansion or contraction of the material and the dilatation of the incident wavelength, which allows us to estimate the magnitude of the nonaffine displacement and the spatial extent of its correlation domain.