Structure of Glass and Liquid Studied with a Conical Nozzle Levitation and Diffraction Technique

Two topics are described for structure analyses of glass and liquid using a combination of conical nozzle levitation (CNL) technique and diffraction experiments. The structure of high-purity bulk forsterite (Mg2SiO4) glass synthesized by a CNL technique has been determined by a combination of high-energy x-ray, neutron diffraction, and reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modeling technique. The 3-dimensional atomic configuration derived from RMC modeling revealed that unusual network structure. In order to study structures of high-temperature and undercooled liquids, a CNL system has been developed and integrated with the two-axis diffractometer for glass, liquid, and amorphous materials at SPring-8, which is one of the third-generation synchrotron source. High-energy x-ray diffraction experiments were performed to obtain reliable diffraction data for the liquid phase of metallic glass-forming Zr-Cu binary alloys.