Geometric Frustration of Icosahedron in Metallic Glasses

A. Hirata (1) , L.J. Kang (1) , T. Fujita (1) , B. Klumov (2) , K. Matsue (1) , M. Kotani (1) , A.R. Yavari (3, 1) , M.W. Chen (1)

1 Tohoku University [Sendai]
2 JIHT - Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the RAS
3 SIMaP - Science et Ingénierie des Matériaux et Procédés

Icosahedral order has been suggested as the prevalent atomic motif of supercooled liquids and metallic glasses for more than half a century, because the icosahedron is highly close-packed but is difficult to grow, owing to structure frustration and the lack of translational periodicity. By means of angstrom-beam electron diffraction of single icosahedra, we report experimental observation of local icosahedral order in metallic glasses. All the detected icosahedra were found to be distorted with partially face-centered cubic symmetry, presenting compelling evidence on geometric frustration of local icosahedral order in metallic glasses.

Domaines: Matériaux

A. Hirata, L.J. Kang, T. Fujita, B. Klumov, K. Matsue, et al.. Geometric Frustration of Icosahedron in Metallic Glasses. Science, 2013, 341 (6144), pp.376-379. ⟨10.1126/science.1232450⟩. ⟨hal-00870688⟩