Extended short-range order determines the overall structure of liquid gallium.

Polyvalent metal melts (gallium, tin, bismuth, etc.) have microscopic structural features, which are detected by neutron and X-ray diffraction and which are absent in simple liquids. Based on neutron and X-ray diffraction data and the results of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations for liquid gallium, we examine the structure of this liquid metal at the atomistic level.