The role of local structure in dynamical arrest

Abstract

Amorphous solids, or glasses, are distinguished from crystalline solids by their lack of long-range structural order. At the level of two-body structural correlations, glassformers show no qualitative change upon vitrifying from a supercooled liquid. Nonetheless the dynamical properties of a glass are so much slower that it appears to take on the properties of a solid. While many theories of the glass transition focus on dynamical quantities, a solid’s resistance to flow is often viewed as a consequence of its structure. Here we address the viewpoint that this remains the case for a glass. Recent developments using higher-order measures show a clear emergence of structure upon dynamical arrest in a variety of glass formers and offer the tantalising hope of a structural mechanism for arrest. However a rigorous fundamental identification of such a causal link between structure and arrest remains elusive. We undertake a critical survey of this work in experiments, computer simulation and theory and discuss what might strengthen the link between structure and dynamical arrest. We move on to highlight the relationship between crystallisation and glass-forming ability made possible by this deeper understanding of the structure of the liquid state, and emphasise the potential to design materials with optimal glassforming and crystallisation ability, for applications such as phase-change memory. We then consider aspects of the phenomenology of glassy systems where structural measures have yet to make a large impact, such as polyamorphism (the existence of multiple liquid states), ageing (the time-evolution of non-equilibrium materials below their glass transition) and the response of glassy materials to external fields such as shear.