Structural changes in liquid selenium with increasing temperature

Structural models of liquid selenium, containing up to 20,000 atoms, have been constructed by means of Reverse Monte Carlo modelling. The models are consistent with a set of X-ray diffraction results obtained at elevated temperatures and pressures. Based on the characteristics of these models we suggest that the general view of the liquid as a collection of chain-like molecules, especially close to the critical point, is probably inappropriate. Instead, near-critical (metallic) fluid Se could be considered as an atomic liquid where first neighbor orientational correlations strongly resemble those found in the solid forms of selenium.