Measuring the Surface Dynamics of Glassy Polymers

The motion of polymer chain segments cooled below the glass transition temperature slows markedly; with sufficient cooling, segmental motion becomes completely arrested. There is debate as to whether the chain segments near the free surface, or in thin films, are affected in the same way as the bulk material. By partially embedding and then removing gold nanospheres, we produced a high surface coverage of well-defined nanodeformations on a …