Relaxation dynamics in liquid and amorphous copper

Molecular dynamics simulations of 1000 atoms have been performed to study the relaxation dynamics of liquid and amorphous copper. During the cooling process, simulations lasting up to 100 ps were performed at eleven specific temperatures above and below the glass transition temperature. Analysis methods of quantity evaluation for the purpose of studying the relaxation dynamics include: mean square displacement, diffusion constant, van Hove correlation function, intermediate scattering function and velocity autocorrelation function. Part of results is in good agreement with experimental data. At the same time, we investigated the heterogeneous and/or homogeneous behavior of the relaxations. It demonstrated that the increase in heterogeneity can be explained in terms of relaxations. The lower the temperature is, the higher the heterogeneity is.