Fragile-to-strong transition and polyamorphism in the energy landscape of liquid silica

Abstract

We study the static and dynamic properties of liquid silica over a wide range of temperature T and density using computer simulations. The results reveal a change in the potential energy landscape as T decreases that underlies a transition from a fragile liquid at high T to a strong liquid at low T. We also show that a specific heat anomaly is associated with this fragile-to-strong transition, and suggest that this anomaly is related to the polyamorphic behaviour of amorphous solid silica.