'Crystal Genes' in Metallic Liquids and Glasses

Yang Sun; Feng Zhang; Zhuo Ye; Yue Zhang; Xiaowei Fang; Zejun Ding; Cai-Zhuang Wang; Mikhail I Mendelev; Ryan T Ott; Matthew J Kramer; Kai-Ming Ho

doi:10.1038/srep23734

'Crystal Genes' in Metallic Liquids and Glasses

Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 31:6:23734. doi: 10.1038/srep23734.

Authors

Yang Sun^{1

2}, Feng Zhang², Zhuo Ye², Yue Zhang², Xiaowei Fang^{1

2}, Zejun Ding¹, Cai-Zhuang Wang^{2

3}, Mikhail I Mendelev², Ryan T Ott², Matthew J Kramer², Kai-Ming Ho^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
² Ames Laboratory, US Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
³ Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
⁴ International Center for Quantum Design of Functional Materials (ICQD), and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.

Abstract

We analyze the underlying structural order that transcends liquid, glass and crystalline states in metallic systems. A genetic algorithm is applied to search for the most common energetically favorable packing motifs in crystalline structures. These motifs are in turn compared to the observed packing motifs in the actual liquid or glass structures using a cluster-alignment method. Using this method, we have revealed the nature of the short-range order in Cu64Zr36 glasses. More importantly, we identified a novel structural order in the Al90Sm10 system. In addition, our approach brings new insight into understanding the origin of vitrification and describing mesoscopic order-disorder transitions in condensed matter systems.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.