Journal Article

Long-Range Topological Order in Metallic Glass

Sheng, Hongwei, Yang, Wenge, Mao, Wendy L., Zeng, Qiaoshi, Jiang, Jian-Zhong, Wang, Lin, Ding, Yang, Mao, Ho-Kwang

2011

Overview

Glass lacks the long-range periodic order that characterizes a crystal. In the Ce 75 Al 25 metallic glass (MG), however, we discovered a long-range topological order corresponding to a single crystal of indefinite length. Structural examinations confirm that the MG is truly amorphous, isotropic, and unstrained, yet under 25 gigapascals hydrostatic pressures, every segment of a centimeter-length MG ribbon devitrifies independently into a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal with the identical orientation. By using molecular dynamics simulations and synchrotron x-ray techniques, we elucidate that the mismatch between the large Ce and small Al atoms frustrates the crystallization and causes amorphization, but a long-range fcc topological order still exists. Pressure induces electronic transition in Ce, which eliminates the mismatch and manifests the topological order by the formation of a single crystal.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Aluminum / Amorphous materials / ATOMS / Cerium / Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties / CRYSTALLIZATION / Crystals / Disordered solids / Electronics / Equations of state, phase equilibria, and phase transitions / Exact sciences and technology / Face centered cubic lattice / Fees / GLASS / Glass transitions / Glasses / High pressure / HYDROSTATICS / INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY / Materials science / Metallic glasses / Metals / Molecular dynamics / MONOCRYSTALS / ORIENTATION / Physics / Ribbons / Single crystals / Specific phase transitions / Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography / SYNCHROTRONS / Topology / X-radiation