Crystallization and Local Order in Glass-Forming Binary Mixtures

Abstract

The local organisation of a simulated glass-forming mixture due to Kob and Andersen is analysed. Evidence is presented for a structural transition from triangulated coordination polyhedra to cubic as the number fraction of the smaller species B increases towards equimolar. The impact of the change on the partial radial distribution function g-{BB}(r) is established. The dependence of the crystallisation rate on the composition is determined and the related to the observed structural changes.