The phrase “metallic glass” may sound like an oxymoron, but the substance is very real, though underutilized.

That could soon change.

EgamiResearch being done by professors like UT’s Takeshi Egami has shown the potential of metallic glass, but it took a recent move to the substance by a tech heavyweight to really open up its potential.

With liquid everywhere around us, it’s surprising to learn how little is really understood about the fundamental properties of liquids, like viscosity, at the atomic level. For a group of researchers working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source, using neutrons to study the atomic dynamics of liquid metals is key to unlocking the mystery of the atomistic origin of viscosity.

Throw a rock through a window made of silica glass, and the brittle, insulating oxide pane shatters. But whack a golf ball with a club made of metallic glass—a resilient conductor that looks like metal—and the glass not only stays intact but also may drive the ball farther than conventional clubs. In light of this contrast, the nature of glass seems anything but clear.

Measurements conducted at the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL have determined exchange couplings in the mag- netically ordered chalcogenide Fe1.05Te, a nonsuperconducting member of the iron-based family of superconductors. The results show the exchange pairings thought to be related to superconductivity occur in a next-nearest-neighbor ordering of atoms, rather than in nearest-neighbor order as in a previously studied iron arsenide.

Takeshi Egami, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is the 2010 winner of the J.D. Hanawalt Award for excellence in the field of X-ray powder diffraction. The award is given every three years by the International Union of Crystallography for important contributions to the field of X-ray powder diffraction. Simon Billinge of Columbia University is a co-recipient of the award. Egami and Billinge co-wrote Underneath the Bragg Peaks: Structural Analysis of Complex Materials, which was published by Pergamon Press in 2003.