Amorphous solid

In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous (from the Greek a, "without",
and morphé, "shape, form") or non-crystalline solid is a solid that lacks the long-range order,
which is a characteristic of a crystal. In some older articles and books, the term was used
synonymously with glass. Today, however, "glassy solid" or "amorphous solid" is considered to
be the overarching concept, and glass is considered to be a special case: glass is an amorphous
solid maintained below its glass transition temperature.[1] Polymers are often amorphous.[2]

Amorphous metals have low toughness, but high strength

Amorphous materials have an internal structure comprising interconnected structural blocks

that can be similar to the basic structural units found in the corresponding crystalline phase of
the same compound.[3] Whether a material is liquid or solid depends primarily on the
connectivity between its elementary building blocks; solids are characterized by a high degree of
connectivity whereas structural blocks in fluids have lower connectivity.[4]

In the pharmaceutical industry, some amorphous drugs have been shown to offer higher
bioavailability than their crystalline counterparts as a result of the higher solubility of the
amorphous phase. However, certain compounds can undergo precipitation in their amorphous
form in vivo, and can then decrease mutual bioavailability if administered together.[5][6]

Nano-structured materials

Even amorphous materials have some degree of short-range order at the atomic length scale
due to the nature of intermolecular chemical bonding (see the structure of liquids and glasses
for more information on non-crystalline material structure). Furthermore, in very small crystals,
short-range order encompasses a large fraction of the atoms; nevertheless, relaxation at the
surface, along with interfacial effects, distorts the atomic positions and decreases structural
order. Even the most advanced structural characterization techniques, such as x-ray diffraction
and transmission electron microscopy, have difficulty distinguishing amorphous and crystalline
structures at short-length scales.[7]

Amorphous thin films

Amorphous phases are important constituents of thin films, solid layers of a few nanometres to
some tens of micrometres deposited upon a substrate. So-called structure zone models were
developed to describe the microstructure of thin films and ceramics as a function of the
homologous temperature (Th), which is the ratio of deposition temperature over melting
temperature.[8][9] According to these models, a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the
occurrence of amorphous phases is that (Th) has to be smaller than 0.3. The deposition
temperature must be below 30% of the melting temperature. For higher values, the surface
diffusion of deposited atomic species would allow for the formation of crystallites with long-
range atomic order.

Regarding their applications, amorphous metallic layers played an important role in the
discovery of superconductivity in amorphous metals by Buckel and Hilsch.[10][11] The
superconductivity of amorphous metals, including amorphous metallic thin films, is now
understood to be due to phonon-mediated Cooper pairing, and the role of structural disorder can
be rationalized based on the strong-coupling Eliashberg theory of superconductivity.[12]
Today,
optical coatings made from TiO2, SiO2, Ta2O5 etc. and combinations of them in most cases
consist of amorphous phases of these compounds. Much research is carried out into thin
amorphous films as a gas separating membrane layer.[13] The technologically most important
thin amorphous film is probably represented by a few nm thin SiO2 layers serving as isolator
above the conducting channel of a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET).
Also, hydrogenated amorphous silicon, a-Si:H for short, is of technical significance for thin-film
solar cells. In the case of a-Si:H the missing long-range order between silicon atoms is partly
induced by the presence of hydrogen in the percent range.

The occurrence of amorphous phases turned out as a phenomenon of particular interest for
studying thin-film growth.[14] Remarkably, the growth of polycrystalline films is often used and
preceded by an initial amorphous layer, the thickness of which may amount to only a few nm.
The most investigated example is represented by thin polycrystalline silicon films, where such as
the unoriented molecule. An initial amorphous layer was observed in many studies.[15] Wedge-
shaped polycrystals were identified by transmission electron microscopy to grow out of the
amorphous phase only after the latter has exceeded a certain thickness, the precise value of
which depends on deposition temperature, background pressure and various other process
parameters. The phenomenon has been interpreted in the framework of Ostwald's rule of
stages[16] that predicts the formation of phases to proceed with increasing condensation time
towards increasing stability.[11][15] Experimental studies of the phenomenon require a clearly
defined state of the substrate surface and its contaminant density etc., upon which the thin film
is deposited.

Soils

Amorphous materials in soil strongly influence bulk density, aggregate stability, plasticity and
water holding capacity of soils. The low bulk density and high void ratios are mostly due to glass
shards and other porous minerals not becoming compacted. Andisol soils contain the highest
amounts of amorphous materials.[17]

References

1. J. Zarzycki: Les verres et l'état vitreux. Paris: Masson 1982. English translation available.

2. Wendorff, Joachim H (1982). "The structure of amorphous polymers" (https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/ret

rieve/pii/0032386182900945) . Polymer. 23 (4): 543–557. doi:10.1016/0032-3861(82)90094-5 (https://
doi.org/10.1016%2F0032-3861%2882%2990094-5) .
 3. Mavračić, Juraj; Mocanu, Felix C.; Deringer, Volker L.; Csányi, Gábor; Elliott, Stephen R. (2018). "Similarity
Between Amorphous and Crystalline Phases: The Case of TiO2" (https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handl
e/1810/283145) . J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9 (11): 2985–2990. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01067 (https://doi.
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4. Ojovan, Michael I.; Lee, William E. (2010). "Connectivity and glass transition in disordered oxide systems".
J. Non-Cryst. Solids. 356 (44–49): 2534–2540. Bibcode:2010JNCS..356.2534O (https://ui.adsabs.harvar
d.edu/abs/2010JNCS..356.2534O) . doi:10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2010.05.012 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F
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5. Hsieh, Yi-Ling; Ilevbare, Grace A.; Van Eerdenbrugh, Bernard; Box, Karl J.; Sanchez-Felix, Manuel Vincente;
Taylor, Lynne S. (2012-05-12). "pH-Induced Precipitation Behavior of Weakly Basic Compounds:
Determination of Extent and Duration of Supersaturation Using Potentiometric Titration and Correlation
to Solid State Properties". Pharmaceutical Research. 29 (10): 2738–2753. doi:10.1007/s11095-012-0759-
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6. Dengale, Swapnil Jayant; Grohganz, Holger; Rades, Thomas; Löbmann, Korbinian (May 2016). "Recent
advances in co-amorphous drug formulations". Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. 100: 116–125.
doi:10.1016/j.addr.2015.12.009 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.addr.2015.12.009) . ISSN 0169-409X (http
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7. Goldstein, Joseph I.; Newbury, Dale E.; Michael, Joseph R.; Ritchie, Nicholas W. M.; Scott, John Henry J.;
Joy, David C. (2018). Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Microanalysis (Fourth ed.). New York, NY.
ISBN 978-1493966745.

8. Movchan, B. A.; Demchishin, A. V. (1969). "Study of the structure and properties of thick vacuum
condensates of nickel, titanium, tungsten, aluminium oxide and zirconium dioxide". Phys. Met. Metallogr.
28: 83–90.

Russian-language version: Fiz. Metal Metalloved (1969) 28: 653-660.

9. Thornton, John A. (1974). "Influence of apparatus geometry and deposition conditions on the structure
and topography of thick sputtered coatings". Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. 11 (4): 666–
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10. Buckel, W.; Hilsch, R. (1956). "Supraleitung und elektrischer Widerstand neuartiger Zinn-Wismut-
Legierungen". Z. Phys. 146: 27–38. doi:10.1007/BF01326000 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF0132600
0) .

11. Buckel, W. (1961). "The influence of crystal bonds on film growth". Elektrische en Magnetische
Eigenschappen van dunne Metallaagies. Leuven, Belgium.
12. Baggioli, Matteo; Setty, Chandan; Zaccone, Alessio (2018). "Effective theory of superconductivity in
strongly coupled amorphous materials" (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.00404.pdf) (PDF). Physical Review
B. 101: 214502. arXiv:2001.00404 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.00404) .
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.101.214502 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevB.101.214502) .

13. de Vos, Renate M.; Verweij, Henk (1998). "High-Selectivity, High-Flux Silica Membranes for Gas
Separation". Science. 279 (5357): 1710–1711. Bibcode:1998Sci...279.1710D (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.e
du/abs/1998Sci...279.1710D) . doi:10.1126/science.279.5357.1710 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscienc
e.279.5357.1710) . PMID 9497287 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9497287) .

14. Magnuson, Martin; Andersson, Matilda; Lu, Jun; Hultman, Lars; Jansson, Ulf (2012). "Electronic structure
and chemical bonding of amorphous chromium carbide thin films". J. Phys. Condens. Matter. 24 (22):
225004. arXiv:1205.0678 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.0678) . Bibcode:2012JPCM...24v5004M (https://u
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15. Birkholz, M.; Selle, B.; Fuhs, W.; Christiansen, S.; Strunk, H. P.; Reich, R. (2001). "Amorphous-crystalline
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i.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001PhRvB..64h5402B) . doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.64.085402 (https://doi.org/
10.1103%2FPhysRevB.64.085402) . Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100331052038/http://ww
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16. Ostwald, Wilhelm (1897). "Studien über die Bildung und Umwandlung fester Körper" (https://commons.wi
kimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_Ostwald_-_Studien_%C3%BCber_die_Bildung_und_Umwandlung_fester_K%
C3%B6rper.pdf) (PDF). Z. Phys. Chem. (in German). 22: 289–330. doi:10.1515/zpch-1897-2233 (https://
doi.org/10.1515%2Fzpch-1897-2233) . Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170308043723/http
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17. Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Marcel Dekker. pp. 93–94.

Further reading

R. Zallen (1969). The Physics of Amorphous Solids. Wiley Interscience.

S.R. Elliot (1990). The Physics of Amorphous Materials (2nd ed.). Longman.

N. Cusack (1969). The Physics of Structurally Disordered Matter: An Introduction. IOP

Publishing.

N.H. March; R.A. Street; M.P. Tosi, eds. (1969). Amorphous Solids and the Liquid State.
Springer.
 D.A. Adler; B.B. Schwartz; M.C. Steele, eds. (1969). Physical Properties of Amorphous
Materials. Springer.

A. Inoue; K. Hasimoto, eds. (1969). Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Materials. Springer.

External links

Journal of Non-crystalline Solids (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jnoncrysol) (Elsevier)

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