Determining the three-dimensional atomic structure of an amorphous solid

Amorphous solids such as glass are ubiquitous in our daily life and have found broad applications ranging from window glass and solar cells to telecommunications and transformer cores. However, due to the lack of long-range order, the three-dimensional (3D) atomic structure of amorphous solids have thus far defied any direct experimental determination. Here, using a multi-component metallic glass as a model, we advance atomic electron tomography to determine its 3D atomic positions and chemical species with a precision of 21 picometer. We quantify the short-range order (SRO) and medium-range order (MRO) of the 3D atomic arrangement. We find that although the 3D atomic packing of the SRO is geometrically disordered, some SROs connect with each other to form crystal-like networks and give rise to MROs, which exhibit translational but no orientational order. We identify four crystal-like MROs - face-centred cubic, hexagonal close-packed, body-centered cubic and simple cubic - coexisting in the sample, which significantly deviate from the ideal crystal structures. We quantify the size, shape, volume, and structural distortion of these MROs with unprecedented detail. Looking forward, we anticipate this experiment will open the door to determining the 3D atomic coordinates of various amorphous solids, whose impact on non-crystalline solids may be comparable to the first 3D crystal structure solved by x-ray crystallography over a century ago.