No abstract

We report on investigations of the static structure factors of glass-forming Zr-Cu alloy melts by combination of the containerless processing technique of electrostatic levitation with diffraction of neutron and synchrotron radiation. The partial Bhatia-Thornton structure factors SNN and SNC were determined from the two total structure factors. While it is widely assumed in literature that the good glass-forming ability of Zr-Cu is related to an icosahedral short-range order prevailing in the melt, our partial structure factors demonstrate that the liquid Zr-Cu is not characterized by a dominant icosahedral short-range order.

No abstract

A homogeneous distribution of ferroelectric nanoinclusions was observed by optical second harmonic generation in epitaxial films of hexagonal RMnO 3 ͑R =Y,Dy,Ho,Er͒ grown on ZrO 2 ͑Y 2 O 3 ͒ substrates. The inclusions correspond to secondary orientations in the c-axis-oriented films. Their volume density is in the range of 10 −3 and their occurrence is independent of growth technique and film thickness in the range of 20-1000 nm. The inclusions behave as preferentially polarized ferroelectric nanodomains whereas the epitaxial film is in a ferroelectric single-domain state. In addition, the antiferromagnetic phase exhibits nanodomains of Ͻ100 nm which is three orders of magnitude below the extension of bulk antiferromagnetic domains in RMnO 3 . Indications for a polarization-induced magnetic order different from that of the bulk are discussed.

No abstract