Dynamic heterogeneity as one of the most important properties in supercooled liquids has been found for several decades. However, its structural origin remains open for many systems. Here, we propose a new structural parameter to characterize local atomic packing in metallic liquids. It is found that the new parameter in a simulated metallic glass-forming liquid is closely correlated with potential energy and atomic mobility. It also exhibits significant spatial heterogeneities and these structural fluctuations show close correlation with the spatial distribution of the long-time dynamic propensities. Therefore, our results provide a direct evidence of the correlation between atomic structure and dynamical heterogeneity
Two glass-transitions have been observed in some miscible molecular mixtures with notable difference in geometry or chemistry of constituents. Explanation of the phenomena has been puzzling with diverse structural models....
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.