Combined infrared and terahertz analysis of amorphous sorbitol

The nature and formation of the glassy state still lack comprehensive understanding. In this work we present a careful terahertz, FTIR, far-infrared, low frequency Raman and computational analysis using density functional theory on the inter-molecular hydrogen bonding characteristics and how this changes above and below the glass transition temperature in amorphous sorbitol. We show that the changes in inter-molecular bonding are strongly linked to the fast nanosecond-to-picosecond molecular dynamics occurring in the amorphous materials.