Strings and interstitials in liquids, glasses and crystals

Abstract

Recent work has shown that atom motion in liquids is not completely homogeneous, but that stringlike cooperative motion can be used to explain several properties of liquids. We now show that with increasing concentration the properties of interstitial atoms in crystalline materials smoothly approach and eventually completely match the properties of the string atoms in liquids. In terms of the interstitialcy theory of liquids and solids, the strings are direct manifestations of interstitials.