Structural Transformations on Vitrification in the Fragile Glass-Forming System CaAl2O4

James W. E. Drewitt, Louis Hennet, Anita Zeidler, Sandro Jahn, Philip S. Salmon, Daniel R. Neuville, and Henry E. Fischer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 235501 – Published 5 December 2012

Abstract

The structure of the fragile glass-forming material CaAl2O4 was measured by applying the method of neutron diffraction with Ca isotope substitution to the laser-heated aerodynamically levitated liquid at 1973(30) K and to the glass at 300(1) K. The results, interpreted with the aid of molecular dynamics simulations, reveal key structural modifications on multiple length scales. Specifically, there is a reorganization on quenching that leads to an almost complete breakdown of the AlO5 polyhedra and threefold coordinated oxygen atoms present in the liquid, and to their replacement by a predominantly corner-sharing network of AlO4 tetrahedra in the glass. This process is accompanied by the formation of branched chains of edge and face-sharing Ca-centered polyhedra that give cationic ordering on an intermediate length scale, where the measured coordination number for O around Ca is 6.0(2) for the liquid and 6.4(2) for the glass.

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  • Received 3 September 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.235501

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

James W. E. Drewitt1,2,*, Louis Hennet2, Anita Zeidler3, Sandro Jahn4, Philip S. Salmon3, Daniel R. Neuville5, and Henry E. Fischer6

  • 1Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom
  • 2Conditions Extrêmes et Matériaux: Haute Température et Irradiation, CEMHTI-CNRS, Université d’Orléans, 1d avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orléans cedex 2, France
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
  • 4GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
  • 5CNRS-IPGP, Géochimie et Cosmochimie, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 1 rue Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
  • 6Institut Laue Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble, France

  • *james.drewitt@ed.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 109, Iss. 23 — 7 December 2012

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