How Stress Can Reduce Dissipation in Glasses

TL;DR

This paper suggests that applying stress to glasses can reduce their internal friction and dissipation by altering defect dynamics and coupling, potentially improving their thermal and dielectric properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theory that stress decreases dissipation in glasses by modifying defect potential barriers and defect-phonon interactions, supported by experimental consistency.

Findings

Stress reduces internal friction in glasses.

Stress can decrease dielectric loss.

Stress may increase thermal conductivity.

Abstract

We propose that stress can decrease the internal friction of amorphous solids, either by increasing the potential barriers of defects, thus reducing their tunneling and thermal activation that produce loss, or by decreasing the coupling between defects and phonons. This stress can be from impurities, atomic bonding constraints, or externally applied stress. Externally applied stress also reduces mechanical loss through dissipation dilution. Our results are consistent with the experiments, and predict that stress could substantially reduce dielectric loss and increase the thermal conductivity.