Abstract
In many liquid metals evidence for a fivefold orientational order was observed. This local ordering was linked to icosahedral structural units in the liquid metals. We performed a small angle neutron scattering experiment on the liquid alkali metal rubidium to search for signatures of the supposed icosahedral clusters. The scattered intensity pattern shows no signs for intermediate range structural order on the investigated length scale. The results deny the existence of a high concentration of ideal 13-atom icosahedrons in liquid rubidium. The result might be interpreted that the observed orientational order is based only on density fluctuations and not on the existence of structural units.
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