Assessing the Utility of Structure in Amorphous Materials

Abstract: This paper presents a set of general strategies for the analysis of structure in amorphous materials and a general approach to assessing the utility of a selected structural description. Measures of structural diversity and utility are defined and applied to two model glass forming binary atomic alloys. In addition, a new measure of incipient crystal-like organization is introduced, suitable for cases where the stable crystal is a compound structure.