Power-law scaling of dynamical and structural signatures in liquid metallic nano-film

K. Zhang¹, Y. Y. Jiang¹, H. Li^1a, P. C. Si¹, Y. F. Li¹, H. Q. Yu¹, K. M. Liew² and X. G. Song¹

¹ Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University - Jinan 250061, China
² Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong - Kowloon, Hong Kong

^a lihuilmy@hotmail.com

Received: 11 August 2011
Accepted: 6 October 2011

Abstract

Structural and dynamical features of a liquid metallic nano-film during cooling are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Several unique structural transformations from liquid to nano-crystalline or glass are observed. Moreover, the crystalline fraction change and motion propensity are discussed in detail. Results indicate a close relation between the local structural ordering and the dynamic signature. We use a new parameter P(a,τ,ν) as an effective indicator for predicting both local structural order and motion propensity in a metallic nano-film, and find that the fraction of crystalline clusters follows a negative power-law scaling with the cooling rate increasing, which is the inverse of P(a,τ,ν).