Importance of rings on the microscopic properties of a strong glass

Abstract

An optimized interparticle potential has been developed for its use in computer molecular dynamics simulations of vitreous boron trioxide (v-B2O3) which includes four-particle interactions. This is required to force the formation of planar six-membered (boroxol) rings in such simulations. As a result, a better agreement with the static structure factor is achieved, even though the percentage of atoms taking part in such structures is relatively small.