Local Structure Controlling the Glass Transition in a Prototype Metal-Metalloid Glass

2019/01/21 by Jason J. Maldonis, Paul M. Voyles, Maldonis, Jason J. +1
Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #Material Science and Thermodynamics #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Surface Roughness and Optical Measurements

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1901.07014

openalex publication_date 2019/01/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We use a structure analysis technique that quantifies cluster geometries using machine learning to identify a bicapped square antiprism (BSAP) as the nearest-neighbor cluster involved in the glass transition in Pd82Si18, a prototype metal-metalloid metallic glass. BSAPs have slow dynamics and grow significantly in concentration during cooling, like icosahedra in other systems. These results are evidence that some preferred structures universally contribute to the glass transition and show that analysis of interatomic geometry can find important structures not revealed by topology.

Related

• Analysis of local structure of mechanical and thermal rearrangements in glasses with the atomic cluster expansion
• The favored cluster structures of model glass formers
• Graph-Dynamics correspondence in metallic glass-forming liquids
• Second-Nearest-Neighbor Correlations from Connection of Atomic Packing Motifs in Metallic Glasses and Liquids
• Emergent rigidity percolation of five-fold aggregates enables controllable glass properties