The radial distribution function and structure factor of liquid and amorphous gallium as described by the quasi-crystalline model

Short range order in anomalous liquid metals

“…This is illustrated for the case of simple monoatomic liquids such as Ar, Cu and Pb, as was previously demonstrated by Medvedev [37][38][39][40]. However, in its original form, this model provides only a poor description of the anomalous liquids of group V, i.e., roughly the main peak is in the correct position and a subsidiary peak is formed between it and the second peak.…”

“…This agreement hints of the possibility that the liquid pnictides SRO near the melting point resembles that of the underlying solid phase. We note that a not dissimilar approach was employed to model the structure of liquid Ga [40], where the effective splitting was achieved by shifting the central atom off-center from the origin.…”

“…To correct empirically for the deficiencies of the original QCM, it has been suggested [28][29][30][31][32][37][38][39][40] that Eq. (2.2) should be generalized such that,…”

“…Some success has also been achieved in applying this model to interpret the structure of more complex liquids such as He [28], Hg [32] and Ga [40]. Thus, the QCM offers an alternative approach to studying the short range structure of liquids, supplying both a definition of the short range order and a method to determine it.…”

“…An alternative approach to analyze the liquid structure is to represent the short range order (SRO) of the liquid in terms of an underlying crystal lattice structure, i.e., within the quasi-crystalline model (QCM) [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. In this model, the liquid structure is characterized by: (i) a crystal lattice symmetry which may or may not be identical with that of the underlying solid; (ii) lattice parameters; (iii) thermal broadening of the nearest neighbor distances and (iv) a length scale associated with the persistence of SRO in the liquid.…”