Revealing hidden medium-range order in amorphous materials using topological data analysis
Open Access
- 11 September 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science Advances
- Vol. 6 (37), eabc2320
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc2320
Abstract
Despite the numerous technological applications of amorphous materials, such as glasses, the understanding of their medium-range order (MRO) structure—and particularly the origin of the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP) in the structure factor—remains elusive. Here, we use persistent homology, an emergent type of topological data analysis, to understand MRO structure in sodium silicate glasses. To enable this analysis, we introduce a self-consistent categorization of rings with rigorous geometrical definitions of the structural entities. Furthermore, we enable quantitative comparison of the persistence diagrams by computing the cumulative sum of all points weighted by their lifetime. On the basis of these analysis methods, we show that the approach can be used to deconvolute the contributions of various MRO features to the FSDP. More generally, the developed methodology can be applied to analyze and categorize molecular dynamics data and understand MRO structure in any class of amorphous solids.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Science Foundation (1928538)
- Villum Fonden (8721)
- Det Frie Forskningsråd (7014-00074)
- Poul Due Jensen Foundation (Grundfos Prize)
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