Modelling the Atomic and Void Structures of Amorphous Materials

From AZoNano:

Researchers have accurately identified tools that model the atomic and void structures of a network-forming elemental material. These tools may revolutionize the process of creating new solar panels, flat-panel displays, optical storage media and myriad other technological devices. The team, made up of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, created 3D models of pressure-dependent structures of amorphous red phosphorus (an allotrope of the element phosphorous with different structural modifications) that for the first time are accurately portrayed by neutron and X-ray diffraction studies. They also developed a new method to accurately characterize void structures within network-forming materials. These results on an elemental material serve as a benchmark indicating the ability of their analysis tools to accurately portray the entire structure of multi-atomic amorphous material systems. The mechanical, optical, magnetic and electronic plasticity of amorphous materials hold great promise toward enhancing current and emergent technologies. The new tools will build more systematic design paths leading to R&D advances.

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