ABSTRACT
Amorphous materials form a class of disordered materials as was mentioned in Chapter 8, as they do not possess translational symmetry, the characteristic of a crystalline material. In amorphous materials, the disorder is positional or topological that is, positions of the atoms are not on a regular lattice as shown schematically in Figure 8.2. This is very different from the substitutional disorder, in which case there is an underlying periodic lattice but the lattice sites are occupied by different atoms as shown schematically in Figure 8.1.
