Exceptional elastic properties in amorphous solids by modulating oscillatory interatomic potentials

Numerous methods have been proposed to enhance elastic properties in amorphous solids, typically by inclusion of highly elastic materials or elements. However, a precise physical understanding of these enhancements is lacking due to numerous variables in play such as chemical concentrations, crystallinity, density, and others, leading to difficulties to optimize elastic properties. In this work, we present a novel bottom-up strategy to achieve exceptionally high bulk and shear modulus in amorphous solids by introducing long range oscillatory atomic interactions mimicking the Friedel oscillations. We demonstrate the strategy in molecular dynamics simulations on monatomic glasses of same density with various interaction cutoff distances. We find that by enlarging the cutoff distance of the oscillatory potentials by a few Å, both bulk and shear modulus sharply increase by nearly a factor of 2, suggesting that modulating long range oscillatory atomic interactions is an effective route in realizing extraordinary elastic properties in amorphous solids.