Abstract
Noncrystalline solids can be classified into glassy and amorphous, wherein glasses and amorphous solids relax toward the supercooled liquid and crystalline states upon heating, respectively. However, the structural origin of such distinction remains unknown. Herein, based on molecular-dynamics simulations of irradiation-induced disordering of α-quartz, we demonstrate the existence of an amorphous-to-glassy transition. We show that the transition to the glassy state originates from the appearance of structural defects within the medium-range order of the atomic network. Such defects arise from the percolation of short-range defects and kinetically prevent crystallization. Overall, this suggests that the propensity of a disordered system for crystallization is controlled by the similarity between its medium-range order and that of the isochemical crystal.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 053405 |
| Journal | Physical Review Materials |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 26 2017 |
Funding
This research was performed using funding received from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's Nuclear Energy University Programs. The authors also acknowledge financial support for this research provided by The Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by UT-Battelle (LDRD Awards No. 4000132990 and No. 4000143356), National Science Foundation (CMMI: 1235269, CAREER Award No. 1253269), Federal Highway Administration (DTFH61-13-H-00011), and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Computational resources were provided by the University of California, Los Angeles and San Diego Super Computer Center as part of the HPC@UC program. This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| Nuclear Energy University Programs | |
| UT-Battelle | |
| UT-Battelle, LLC | |
| National Science Foundation | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation | 1253269, 1235269 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Federal Highway Administration | DTFH61-13-H-00011 |
| Laboratory Directed Research and Development | 4000143356, 4000132990 |
| University of California, Los Angeles |