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Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
A general structural order parameter for the amorphous solidification of a supercooled liquid
1School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Abstract:
The persistent problem posed by the glass transition is to develop a general atomic level description of amorphous solidification. The answer proposed in this paper is to measure a configuration's capacity to restrain the motion of the constituent atoms. Here, we show that the instantaneous normal modes can be used to define a measure of atomic restraint that accounts for the difference between fragile and strong liquids and the collective length scale of the supercooled liquid. These results represent a significant simplification of the description of amorphous solidification and provide a powerful systematic treatment of the influence of microscopic factors on the formation of an amorphous solid.
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