Icosahedral clustering in a supercooled liquid and glass

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Abstract
We study the icosahedral clustering process in a supercooled single‐component metal liquid by use of Voronoi polyhedron analysis. The number of the cluster increases with decreasing temperature from just below the melting temperature. The life of the cluster increases with decreasing temperature from slightly above the glass transition temperature Tg. The atoms with 0.56 fraction in the system become the central atoms of the cluster at least one time during the cooling process, although the total fraction of the clusters is 0.04 at temperatures far below the Tg. After atoms become the central atoms for the first time which we call fresh atoms, the atoms become central atoms of the other types of clusters, and after then revive as the central atoms of the icosahedral cluster. The life is longer for the revived atoms than for the fresh atoms in the low temperature region. The longer life is due to the energetic stability of the coordinate atoms around the revived atoms. We present atomistic transition processes from the cluster to the other types of clusters.

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