In a crystalline solid, the atoms form an ordered lattice. Crystalline solids respond elastically to small deformations: When the applied strain is removed, the macroscopic stress, as well as the ...

Material engineers and scientists have long wanted to understand the atomic structures of amorphous solids such as glass, rubber and plastics more fully. Unlike the structures of crystalline materials ...

Anything made out of plastic or glass is known as an amorphous material. Unlike many materials that freeze into crystalline solids, the atoms and molecules in amorphous materials never stack together ...

For more than a century, an important class of matter -- the amorphous solid -- has eluded scientists' ability to depict nature at the level of atoms and molecules. Until now. A new study reports the ...