Glasses of simple liquids with double-well interaction potential

Abstract

Glasses of simple monatomic liquids were studied in cubic models containing 2744 atoms by using the molecular dynamics (MD) method under periodic boundary conditions. We use the pair double-well interaction potentials, which were recently developed by Engel et al. We found a glass transition in the system via cooling it from the melt toward T=0. Microstructure of a model is analyzed via radial distribution function (RDF), coordination number distributions, bond-angle distributions and Honeycutt-Andersen analysis. We found the existence of an icosahedral local order in the system which is enhanced with decreasing temperature. Evolution of structure of the system upon cooling from the melt and annealing effects on the structure of model are discussed. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.