Pressure-induced amorphization of R-Al₅Li₃Cu: A structural relation among amorphous metals, quasi-crystals, and curved space

A central question in the study of amorphous materials is the extent to which they are ordered. When the crystalline intermetallic R-Al ₅Li₃Cu is compressed to 23.2 gigapascals at ambient temperature, an amorphous phase is produced whose order can be described as defects in a curved-space crystal. This result supports a structural relation between quasi-crystals and amorphous metals based on icosahedral ordering. This result also shows that a metallic crystal can be made amorphous by compression.