title: Long-range topological order in metallic glass.
abstract: Glass lacks the long-range periodic order that characterizes a crystal. In the Ce(75)Al(25) metallic glass (MG), however, we discovered a long-range topological order corresponding to a single crystal of indefinite length. Structural examinations confirm that the MG is truly amorphous, isotropic, and unstrained, yet under 25 gigapascals hydrostatic pressures, every segment of a centimeter-length MG ribbon devitrifies independently into a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal with the identical orientation. By using molecular dynamics simulations and synchrotron x-ray techniques, we elucidate that the mismatch between the large Ce and small Al atoms frustrates the crystallization and causes amorphization, but a long-range fcc topological order still exists. Pressure induces electronic transition in Ce, which eliminates the mismatch and manifests the topological order by the formation of a single crystal.
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiaoshi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wenge
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jian-Zhong
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wendy L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Ho-Kwang
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Mao