Curie-Weiss behavior of liquid structure and ideal glass state

CW Ryu and W Dmowski and KF Kelton and GW Lee and ES Park and JR Morris and T Egami, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 9, 18579 (2019).

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54758-y

We present the results of a structural study of metallic alloy liquids from high temperature through the glass transition. We use high energy X-ray scattering and electro-static levitation in combination with molecular dynamics simulation and show that the height of the first peak of the structure function, S(Q) 1, follows the Curie-Weiss law. The structural coherence length is proportional to the height of the first peak, and we suggest that its increase with cooling may be related to the rapid increase in viscosity. The Curie temperature is negative, implying an analogy with spin-glass. The Curie-Weiss behavior provides a pathway to an ideal glass state, a state with long-range correlation without lattice periodicity, which is characterized by highly diverse local structures, reminiscent of spin-glass.

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