Thermal noise properties of two aging materials

Abstract

In this lecture we review several aspects of the thermal noise properties in two aging materials: a polymer and a colloidal glass. The measurements have been performed after a quench for the polymer and during the transition from a fluid-like to a solid-like state for the gel. Two kind of noise has been measured: the electrical noise and the mechanical noise. For both materials we have observed that the electric noise is characterized by a strong intermittency, which induces a large violation of the Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem (FDT) during the aging time, and may persist for several hours at low frequency. The statistics of these intermittent signals and their dependance on the quench speed for the polymer or on sample concentration for the gel are studied. The results are in a qualitative agreement with recent models of aging, that predict an intermittent dynamics. For the mechanical noise the results are unclear. In the polymer the mechanical thermal noise is still intermittent whereas for the gel the violation of FDT, if it exists, is extremely small.