'Crystal Genes' in Metallic Liquids and Glasses

Area of Science:

• Condensed matter physics
• Materials science
• Computational materials science

Background:

• Understanding the structural order in metallic systems across different states (liquid, glass, crystalline) is crucial for materials design.
• Short-range order significantly influences the properties of metallic glasses and their transitions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and compare energetically favorable packing motifs in crystalline structures with those in liquid and glass states.
• To reveal the nature of short-range order in specific metallic glass systems like Cu64Zr36 and Al90Sm10.
• To gain new insights into the origins of vitrification and mesoscopic order-disorder transitions.

Main Methods:

• Application of a genetic algorithm to find common energetically favorable packing motifs in crystalline structures.
• Utilizing a cluster-alignment method to compare crystalline motifs with observed packing in liquid/glass structures.
• Analysis of metallic systems including Cu64Zr36 and Al90Sm10.

Main Results:

• Identification of common structural orders that exist across liquid, glass, and crystalline states in metallic systems.
• Detailed characterization of the short-range order in Cu64Zr36 metallic glasses.
• Discovery of a novel structural order in the Al90Sm10 system.

Conclusions:

• The developed approach provides a powerful tool for analyzing and understanding structural order in condensed matter.
• The findings offer new perspectives on the fundamental mechanisms of vitrification and mesoscopic transitions.
• This research advances the field of metallic glass science by elucidating underlying structural principles.