Structural order and anomaly of liquid gallium–indium during isothermal dissolution of indium in liquid gallium

Abstract

The behaviour of the excess entropy of the isothermal dissolution of indium in liquid gallium is examined in this article. We show the presence of a structural anomaly using the pair distribution function and excess entropy analysis when particles move from a far distance to the first coordination shell with increasing indium content, indicating that the structural anomaly depends only on what happens up to the local shell. These findings are in agreement with results of earlier studies. Moreover, the translational order parameter is introduced to quantify the disorder in liquid gallium–indium. The order mapped together with the two-body excess entropy shows that with an increase in indium content, the ‘true’ liquid changes to the liquid containing solid-like clusters.