How a Supercooled Liquid Borrows Structure from the Crystal

Abstract

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.

References in corpus (2)

• The role of local structure in dynamical arrest
• Understanding fragility in supercooled Lennard-Jones mixtures. I. Locally preferred structures