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A general strategy for the vitrification of monatomic metals

The question of whether all materials can be put into glass form was raised half a century ago but has remained unanswered. Using picosecond pulsed laser ablation, the vitrification of gold — which has been notoriously difficult — and several other monatomic metals is demonstrated, indicating that vitrification is an intrinsic property of matter.

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Fig. 1: Preparation and structural characterization of various MMGs.

References

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This is a summary of: Tong, X. et al. Breaking the vitrification limitation of monatomic metals. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01967-0 (2024).

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A general strategy for the vitrification of monatomic metals. Nat. Mater. 23, 1165–1166 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01973-2

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