Topological analyses of structure of glassy materials toward extraction of order hidden in disordered structure

Understanding the structure of disordered materials is still one of the most challenging topics in materials science because of insufficient structural information on experimental data. In this article, recent studies in solving the structure of glassy oxide materials via a combination of quantum beam experiments and computer simulations with the aid of advanced topological analyses are reviewed. To investigate glass structure on the intermediate length scale, three-dimensional atomistic structure models, which reproduce the multiple experimental dataset, were constructed. Furthermore, various topological analyses found that the network topology is an important structural feature for understanding properties of oxide glasses. The comprehensive approach including experimental, computational, and analytical method will be a promising way to probe the hidden order in disordered structure and provide crucial knowledge to design new glass materials with novel characteristics.