On Structural Rearrangements during the Vitrification of Molten Copper

MI Ojovan and DV Louzguine-Luzgin, MATERIALS, 15, 1313 (2022).

DOI: 10.3390/ma15041313

We utilise displacement analysis of Cu-atoms between the chemical bond- centred Voronoi polyhedrons to reveal structural changes at the glass transition. We confirm that the disordered congruent bond lattice of Cu loses its rigidity above the glass transition temperature (T-g) in line with Kantor-Webman theorem due to percolation via configurons (broken Cu-Cu chemical bonds). We reveal that the amorphous Cu has the T-g = 794 +/- 10 K at the cooling rate q = 1 x 10(13) K/s and that the determination of T-g based on analysis of first sharp diffraction minimum (FDSM) is sharper compared with classical Wendt-Abraham empirical criterion.

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