Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Fragile-to-strong transition in liquid As2S3 under pressure: The effect of melt metallization. / Brazhkin, V.V.; Tsiok, O.B.; Tverjanovich, A.; Usuki, T.; Benmore, C.J.; Khomenko, M.; Sokolov, A.; Kassem, M.; Fontanari, D.; Ohara, K.; Bychkov, E.
In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 308, 122001, 15.04.2026.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Fragile-to-strong transition in liquid As2S3 under pressure: The effect of melt metallization
AU - Brazhkin, V.V.
AU - Tsiok, O.B.
AU - Tverjanovich, A.
AU - Usuki, T.
AU - Benmore, C.J.
AU - Khomenko, M.
AU - Sokolov, A.
AU - Kassem, M.
AU - Fontanari, D.
AU - Ohara, K.
AU - Bychkov, E.
N1 - Export Date: 23 February 2026; Cited By: 0; Correspondence Address: E. Bychkov; Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l’Atmosphère, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale, Dunkerque, 59140, France; email: eugene.bychkov@univ-littoral.fr
PY - 2026/4/15
Y1 - 2026/4/15
N2 - The well-known classification of glass-forming melts into fragile and strong liquids has several notable exceptions, including water, silica, and certain phase-change materials (PCMs). These exceptional fluid systems exhibit a fragile-to-strong transition (FST) upon cooling: a transformation from a high-temperature liquid with fast atomic dynamics, low viscosity, and low flow activation energy, to a viscous supercooled melt with high energy barriers near the glass transition temperature Tg. This behavior is critically important for non-volatile memories, photonic tensor cores, reconfigurable metamaterials, and other devices, that use PCMs, enabling nanosecond-scale crystallization in the fragile regime and long data retention in the strong regime near or below Tg. A significant structural transformation is expected between these two viscosity regimes, along with a semiconductor-metal (SC-M) transition upon heating, driven by high internal pressure and associated density increase. By applying high external pressure to the canonical low-conducting chalcogenide melt As2S3, we observed both the FST and the SC-M transition, occurring simultaneously within the same domain of the P,T−phase space. These findings suggest that the FST is not limited to a few exceptional liquids but is a common phenomenon, at least in systems that exhibit melt metallization within specific regions of their P,T−phase diagrams. © 2026 The Authors.
AB - The well-known classification of glass-forming melts into fragile and strong liquids has several notable exceptions, including water, silica, and certain phase-change materials (PCMs). These exceptional fluid systems exhibit a fragile-to-strong transition (FST) upon cooling: a transformation from a high-temperature liquid with fast atomic dynamics, low viscosity, and low flow activation energy, to a viscous supercooled melt with high energy barriers near the glass transition temperature Tg. This behavior is critically important for non-volatile memories, photonic tensor cores, reconfigurable metamaterials, and other devices, that use PCMs, enabling nanosecond-scale crystallization in the fragile regime and long data retention in the strong regime near or below Tg. A significant structural transformation is expected between these two viscosity regimes, along with a semiconductor-metal (SC-M) transition upon heating, driven by high internal pressure and associated density increase. By applying high external pressure to the canonical low-conducting chalcogenide melt As2S3, we observed both the FST and the SC-M transition, occurring simultaneously within the same domain of the P,T−phase space. These findings suggest that the FST is not limited to a few exceptional liquids but is a common phenomenon, at least in systems that exhibit melt metallization within specific regions of their P,T−phase diagrams. © 2026 The Authors.
KW - First-principles molecular dynamics
KW - Fragile-to-strong transition
KW - High-energy X-ray diffraction
KW - Semiconductor-metal transition
KW - Viscosity under high pressure
KW - Activation energy
KW - Arsenic compounds
KW - Data storage equipment
KW - Glass
KW - Metadata
KW - Molecular dynamics
KW - Phase change materials
KW - Silica
KW - Storage (materials)
KW - Tensors
KW - Viscosity
KW - First principles molecular dynamics
KW - High energy X ray
KW - High pressure
KW - Metallisation
KW - Phase Change
KW - X- ray diffractions
KW - Glass transition
KW - Metallizing
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/0082037d-2cfb-3c5f-8245-57ad5f0dc341/
U2 - 10.1016/j.actamat.2026.122001
DO - 10.1016/j.actamat.2026.122001
M3 - статья
VL - 308
JO - Acta Materialia
JF - Acta Materialia
SN - 1359-6454
M1 - 122001
ER -
ID: 149216144