Crystallisation and glass formation in liquid lead: a molecular dynamics study Original Research Article

The molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of crystallisation and glass formation in liquid lead have been performed. Two series of calculations are presented. 1. Isochoric quenches down to 1 K of liquid densified and rarefied lead at various cooling rates; 2. Isothermal (at 600K) compression and decompression at various compression rates. The resulting structures at 1K are analysed within the stochastic geometry methods. The changes of the potential energy, and of the diffusion coefficient during the pressure induced solidification are discussed.