How a Supercooled Liquid Borrows Structure from the Crystal

Using computer simulations, we establish that the structure of a supercooled binary atomic liquid mixture consists of common neighbour structures similar to those found in the equilibrium crystal phase, a Laves structure. Despite the large accumulation of crystal-like structure, we establish that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2020-12
Main Authors: Pedersen, Ulf, Douglass, Ian, Harrowell, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystal structure
Crystals
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Using computer simulations, we establish that the structure of a supercooled binary atomic liquid mixture consists of common neighbour structures similar to those found in the equilibrium crystal phase, a Laves structure. Despite the large accumulation of crystal-like structure, we establish that the supercooled liquid represents a true metastable liquid and that liquid can borrow crystal structure without being destabilized. We consider whether this feature might be the origin of all instances of liquids of a strongly favoured local structure.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2012.09957