Metallic glass yields secrets under pressure
Metallic glasses are emerging as potentially useful materials at the frontier of materials science research. They combine the advantages and avoid many of the problems of normal metals and glasses, two classes of materials with a very wide range of applications. For example, metallic glasses are less brittle than ordinary glasses and more resilient than conventional metals. Metallic glasses also have unique electronic behaviour that scientists are just beginning to understand. In a new study, scientists at the Carnegie Institution used high pressure techniques to probe the connection between the density and electronic structure of a cerium-aluminium metallic glass, opening up new possibilities for developing metallic glasses for specific purposes...