Structures of liquid aluminium under high pressure

Molecular dynamics simulation has been carried out for melt Al under constant temperature and constant pressure. The interaction between atoms is described by tight-binding many-body potentials based on the second-moment approximation to the electronic density of states. The pair correlation function and the pair analysis technique are used to reveal the structural features of liquid Al under normal and high pressure. High pressure is favourable to the existence of bcc clusters 1661 and 1441, but has no effect on the fcc cluster 1421. The bond pair 1551 and 1541 with fivefold symmetry exists at high pressure. The microstructure of liquid is more similar to the non-crystalline structure than to the crystalline structure. The simulation results are supported by the x-ray experimental results.