Structural study of supercooled liquid transition metals

Is icosahedral short-range order presented in supercooled transition metals?

Supercooled transition metals are characterized by the absence of long-range order and the presence of a specific short-range order in the arrangement of atoms. So, the presence of shoulders and broadenings at the second maximum in the experimentally measured quantity-in the static structure factorS(k)-is usually interpreted as a manifestation of the icosahedral (ideal or distorted) short-range order (ISRO-Icosahedral Short-Range Order). Icosahedral short-range order is a structure with fivefold symmetry in the arrangement of atoms, which can lead to the possibility of achieving deep supercooling. In this work, we study the local structural features of equilibrium and supercooled nickel melts under various cooling protocols (γ∈1010,1014 K s^-1) in order to clarify the mechanism of formation of the icosahedral short-range order in pure transition metals. Comprehensive studies of the properties of nickel melts were carried out using experiments on x-ray diffraction, large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with subsequent structural and cluster analysis. A good agreement was found between the results of x-ray diffraction data and the MD simulations results for an equilibrium nickel melt. It was found that the nickel melt is characterized by a short-range order, formed by fragments of icosahedra and distorted icosahedral clusters. It was revealed that the 'liquid-crystal' phase transition in nickel is accompanied by the transformation of distorted icosahedral clusters into clusters with thefcc/hcp-symmetry. It is shown that, in contrast to the Voronoi tessellation method, the cluster analysis method based on the (q4,q6) rotational invariants does not allow sufficiently correct identification of the distorted icosahedral short-range order in metal melts.

First principles study of liquid uranium at temperatures up to 2050 K

Uranium compounds are used as fissile materials in nuclear reactors. In present day reactors the most used nuclear fuel is uranium dioxide, but in generation-IV reactors other compounds are also being considered, such as uranium carbide and uranium mononitride. Upon possible accidents where the coolant would not circulate or be lost the core of the reactor would reach very high temperatures, and therefore it is essential to understand the behaviour of the nuclear fuel under such conditions for proper risk assessment. We consider here molten metallic uranium at several temperatures ranging from 1455 to 2050 K. Even though metallic uranium is not a candidate for nuclear fuel it could nevertheless be produced due to the thermochemical instability of uranium nitride at high temperatures. We use first principles techniques to analyse the behaviour of this system and obtain basic structural and dynamic properties, as well as some thermodynamic and transport properties, including atomic diffusion and viscosity.

Temperature Dependences of Peak Positions in Pair Distribution Function of Metallic Liquids

The temperature dependences of the peak positions in pair distribution functions G(r) of pure metallic zinc (Zn) and indium (In) liquids have been studied using high-energy X-ray diffraction together with ab initio molecular dynamic simulations. It has been demonstrated that the first peak positions in G(r) of both Zn and In move to small r, whereas the second peak positions exhibit opposite movements with increasing temperature, originating from different thermal responses of polyhedron connections. However, the third, above peaks in G(r) in both liquids shift to large r with the expansion coefficients smaller than the values of bulk liquids.

Effect of Ta addition on the structural, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of CoCrFeNi high entropy alloys

Ta addition alters the microstructures, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of CoCrFeNi alloys.

Local structure of liquid gallium under pressure

In situ high energy X-ray pair distribution function (PDF) measurements, microtomography and reverse Monte Carlo simulations were used to characterize the local structure of liquid gallium up to 1.9 GPa. This pressure range includes the well-known solid-solid phase transition from Ga-I to Ga-II at low temperature. In term of previous research, the local structure of liquid gallium within this domain was suggested a mixture of two local structures, Ga I and Ga II, based on fitting experimental PDF to known crystal structure, with a controversy. However, our result shows a distinctly different result that the local structure of liquid gallium resembles the atomic arrangement of both gallium phase II and III (the high pressure crystalline phase). A melting mechanism is proposed for Ga, in which the atomic structure of phase Ι breaks up at the onset of melting, providing sufficient free volume for atoms to rearrange, to form the melt.

A liquid-liquid transition can exist in monatomic transition metals with a positive melting slope

Liquid-liquid transitions under high pressure are found in many elemental materials, but the transitions are known to be associated with either sp-valent materials or f-valent rare-earth elements, in which the maximum or a negative slope in the melting line is readily suggestive of the transition. Here we find a liquid-liquid transition with a positive melting slope in transition metal Ti from structural, electronic, and thermodynamic studies using ab-initio molecular dynamics calculations, showing diffusion anomaly, but no density anomaly. The origin of the transition in liquid Ti is a pressure-induced increase of local structures containing very short bonds with directionality in electronic configurations. This behavior appears to be characteristic of the early transition metals. In contrast, the late transition metal liquid Ni does not show the L-L transition with pressure. This result suggests that the possibility of the L-L transition decreases from early to late transition metals as electronic structures of late transition metals barely have a Jahn-Teller effect and bond directionality. Our results generalize that a phase transition in disordered materials is found with any valence band regardless of the sign of the melting slope, but related to the symmetry of electronic structures of constituent elements.

Synergy and pinning effects in a monatomic liquid film in confined conditions

A semi-ordered morphology with maze-like nano-patterns emerges due to the synergy effect and pinning effect of local icosahedral order during rapid cooling.

Negative expansions of interatomic distances in metallic melts

When a material is heated, generally, it dilates. Here, we find a general trend that the average distance between a center atom and atoms in the first nearest-neighbor shell contracts for several metallic melts upon heating. Using synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique and molecular dynamics simulations, we elucidate that this anomaly is caused by the redistribution of polyhedral clusters affected by temperature. In metallic melts, the high-coordinated polyhedra are inclined to evolve into low-coordinated ones with increasing temperature. As the coordination number decreases, the average atomic distance between a center atom and atoms in the first shell of polyhedral clusters is reduced. This phenomenon is a ubiquitous feature for metallic melts consisting of various-sized polyhedra. This finding sheds light on the understanding of atomic structures and thermal behavior of disordered materials and will trigger more experimental and theoretical studies of liquids, amorphous alloys, glasses, and casting temperature effect on solidification process of crystalline materials.

High energy x-ray scattering studies of the local order in liquid Al

The x-ray structure factors and densities for liquid aluminum from 1123 K to 1273 K have been measured using the beamline electrostatic levitator. Atomic structures as a function of temperature have been constructed from the diffraction data with reverse Monte Carlo simulations. An analysis of the local atomic structures in terms of the Honeycutt-Andersen indices indicates a high degree of icosahedral and distorted icosahedral order, a modest amount of body-centered cubic order, and marginal amounts of face-centered cubic and hexagonal close-packed order.

Detecting hidden spatial and spatio-temporal structures in glasses and complex physical systems by multiresolution network clustering

We elaborate on a general method that we recently introduced for characterizing the "natural" structures in complex physical systems via multi-scale network analysis. The method is based on "community detection" wherein interacting particles are partitioned into an "ideal gas" of optimally decoupled groups of particles. Specifically, we construct a set of network representations ("replicas") of the physical system based on interatomic potentials and apply a multiscale clustering ("multiresolution community detection") analysis using information-based correlations among the replicas. Replicas may i) be different representations of an identical static system, ii) embody dynamics by considering replicas to be time separated snapshots of the system (with a tunable time separation), or iii) encode general correlations when different replicas correspond to different representations of the entire history of the system as it evolves in space-time. Inputs for our method are the inter-particle potentials or experimentally measured two (or higher order) particle correlations. We apply our method to computer simulations of a binary Kob-Andersen Lennard-Jones system in a mixture ratio of A(80)B(20) , a ternary model system with components "A", "B", and "C" in ratios of A(88)B(7)C(5) (as in Al(88)Y(7)Fe(5) , and to atomic coordinates in a Zr(80)Pt(20) system as gleaned by reverse Monte Carlo analysis of experimentally determined structure factors. We identify the dominant structures (disjoint or overlapping) and general length scales by analyzing extrema of the information theory measures. We speculate on possible links between i) physical transitions or crossovers and ii) changes in structures found by this method as well as phase transitions associated with the computational complexity of the community detection problem. We also briefly consider continuum approaches and discuss rigidity and the shear penetration depth in amorphous systems; this latter length scale increases as the system becomes progressively rigid.

A highly modular beamline electrostatic levitation facility, optimized for in situ high-energy x-ray scattering studies of equilibrium and supercooled liquids

High-energy x-ray diffraction studies of metallic liquids provide valuable information about structural evolution on the atomic length scale, leading to insights into the origin of the nucleation barrier and the processes of supercooling and glass formation. The containerless processing of the beamline electrostatic levitation (BESL) facility allows coordinated thermophysical and structural studies of equilibrium and supercooled liquids to be made in a contamination-free, high-vacuum (∼10(-8) Torr) environment. To date, the incorporation of electrostatic levitation facilities into synchrotron beamlines has been difficult due to the large footprint of the apparatus and the difficulties associated with its transportation and implementation. Here, we describe a modular levitation facility that is optimized for diffraction studies of high-temperature liquids at high-energy synchrotron beamlines. The modular approach used in the apparatus design allows it to be easily transported and quickly setup. Unlike most previous electrostatic levitation facilities, BESL can be operated by a single user instead of a user team.

X-ray diffraction measurements of Mo melting to 119 GPa and the high pressure phase diagram

In this paper, we report angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction data of molybdenum melting, measured in a double-sided laser-heated diamond-anvil cell up to a pressure of 119 GPa and temperatures up to 3400 K. The new melting temperatures are in excellent agreement with earlier measurements up to 90 GPa that relied on optical observations of melting and in strong contrast to most theoretical estimates. The X-ray measurements show that the solid melts from the bcc structure throughout the reported pressure range and provide no evidence for a high temperature transition from bcc to a close-packed structure, or to any other crystalline structure. This observation contradicts earlier interpretations of shock data arguing for such a transition. Instead, the values for the Poisson ratios of shock compressed Mo, obtained from the sound speed measurements, and the present X-ray evidence of loss of long-range order suggest that the 210 GPa (approximately 4100 K) transition in the shock experiment is from the bcc structure to a new, highly viscous, structured melt.

Structural and dynamical properties of liquid Mg. An orbital-free molecular dynamics study

Several static and dynamic properties of liquid magnesium near melting have been evaluated by the orbital-free ab initio molecular dynamics method. The calculated static structure shows good agreement with recent experimental data, including an asymmetric second peak in the structure factor which has been linked to the existence of an important icosahedral short-range order in the liquid. As for the dynamic structure, we obtain collective density excitations with an associated dispersion relation which closely follows recent experimental results. Accurate estimates have also been obtained for several transport coefficients.

Transport properties of liquid nickel near the melting point: An ab initio molecular dynamics study

The authors have investigated the dynamic properties of liquid nickel near the melting point by means of first principles molecular dynamics simulations in the framework of the density functional theory. Single-atom as well as collective dynamic properties are determined and transport coefficients are deduced. The calculation of the shear viscosity from the transverse current-current correlation function is examined in detail, and finite size effects are analyzed through a reference model to show the feasibility of this approach from first principles. The role played by the anharmonic character of the interactions is discussed.