There is a fundamental divide in symmetry between crystalline and glassy materials, where the structural disorder in glass leads to unique material properties and a myriad of applications. The provision of metrics for describing the order within disorder remains, however, an open challenge, especially on length scales beyond the nearest neighbor that are characterized by rich structural complexity. Here, we address this challenge by applying the method of persistent homology to characterize the structure of silica glass. The structural disorder is systematically engineered by preparing the glass under different high-pressure and temperature conditions, which impacts on the low-frequency vibrational and thermodynamic properties.
- Yohei Onodera
- Shinji Kohara
- Osami Sakata
