Distribution of atomic rearrangement vectors in a metallic glass

Short-timescale atomic rearrangements are fundamental to the kinetics of glasses and frequently dominated by one atom moving significantly (a rearrangement), while others relax only modestly. The rates directions such (or hops) distributions activation barriers ( E act ) for rearrangement a single how those vary across atoms in system. We have used molecular dynamics simulations Cu 50 Zr metallic glass below T g an isoconfigurational ensemble catalog from thousands sites. majority strongly caged their neighbors, but tiny fraction has very high propensity rearrangement, which leads power-law variation cage-breaking probability model. In addition, generally multiple accessible vectors, each with its own . However, lower higher rates) explored fewer possible as low path is far more than others. discuss our results influence future modeling efforts predict vector hopping atom.