Fundamentals of Amorphous Solids

Adopting a unique approach, this book lays the foundations for the theory of amorphousness. The scientific mysteries surrounding the topic are unraveled, replacing rather vague notions of amorphous materials as disordered crystalline solids with the well-founded concept of ideal amorpous solids. A classification of amorphous materials into inorganic glasses, organic glasses, glassy metallic alloys, and thin films sets the scene for the development of the model of ideal amorphous solids, based on topology- and statistics-governed rules of three-dimensional sphere packing, which leads to structures with no short, mid or long-range order. This general model is then concretized to the description of specific compounds in the four fundamental classes of amorphous solids, as well as amorphous polyethylene and poly(methyl)methacrylate, emphasizing its versatility an descriptive power. Finally, example applications to indicate the abundance of amorphous materials in modern-day technology are included, thus illustrating the importance of a better understanding of their structure and properties. This book can be used as supplementary reading in courses on crystallography, mineralogy, solid state physics, and materials science where amorpous materials have played only a minor role until now.