Student research opportunities
A study of imperfections in amorphous alloys
Project Code: CECS_170
This project is available at the following levels:
PhD
Please note that this project is only for higher degree (postgraduate) applicants.
Supervisor:
Dr Zbigniew StachurskiOutline:
A significant research effort is continuously being applied to understand the structure and behaviour of amorphous materials. Solid amorphous materials are used as glasses, optical fibres, insulators, pharmaceuticals, and especially recently in the fields of optoelectronics (thin film transistors in flat-screen displays, re-writable DVDs as amorphous-crystalline transition effects) and sustainable energy devices (metal hydrides and gradient materials)
An ideal amorphous solid has been defined and described [Lee et al, Acta Materialia, Vol.58/2 (2010) 615-625]. Real materials necessarily contain imperfections. In this project the imperfections will be introduced in a controlled way, and the effect on x-ray scattering and physical properties will be measured, both by computer simulations and experimental work.
Goals of this project
The most significant aspects of the project are:
• ultra-fast software for computing geometric IAS structures, which will be made freely available to other scientists, thus making it widely disseminated and (eventually) universally accepted.
• new tools for modelling and testing 3D structure of amorphous materials in a unique and unambiguous manner.
• basis for molecular (atomistic) mechanisms for nano-scale partitioning in bulk metallic glasses.
• provide evidence that amorphous materials deform and flow through a collective movement of their particles.
The project goals are:
- create new devices based on amorphous alloy using vapour deposition techniques.
– adapt and develop the mathematics to describe the structures, and
– develop and enhance the analytical tool (x-ray scattering) for measuring the structure.
Requirements/Prerequisites
A strong degree in physics or materials science
Interest in atomic structure (arrangement) in solids
Computational skills
