Introduction to amorphous materials

With the development of human science and technology, a new type of amorphous crystalline material has emerged, including amorphous alloys, amorphous conductors, amorphous superconductors, amorphous superconductors and organic polymer glass. So what is an amorphous material? Let me give you a brief introduction to the concepts and features.The so-called amorphous material is also called amorphous or glassy material. It is a rigid solid with high hardness and high viscosity coefficient comparable to crystalline materials. Due to his courtyard, the lack of periodic and translational symmetry in the spatial arrangement of the molecules leads to the destruction of the long-term order of his crystalline state.It is only the interaction between atoms that allows him to have short programs in small areas of atoms or molecules. But so far there is no way to determine the atomic structure of amorphous materials.

Let's talk about the basic characteristics of amorphous materials.

First of all, because it does not have any long programs, only short programs between cells, its wave vector K is no longer a good quantum number describing the state of motion.

The second is his electron diffraction. The composition of neutron diffraction and X-ray diffraction patterns and relatively wide halos and dispersed rings makes it impossible to see any contrast between crystal boundaries and crystal defects under the electron microscope.

Third, any amorphous material is in a metastable state. When the surrounding temperature continues to rise, significant structural changes will occur in a very narrow temperature range, causing it to change from an amorphous state to a static state. The crystallization process depends on the atomic diffusion coefficient, interface energy and dissolution entropy of the material.

The above mentioned are only the general material properties of amorphous materials. Among more different materials, they also have some special properties of their own.