Revision as of 09:12, 28 February 2025

In quasi amorphous structures the internal structure of atomically precise parts is intentionally made seemingly chaotic and glass like
but actually all the positions and orientations of the atoms are very much intentional
they are and a result of computer optimizations.
To put it somewhat humorously: There is method behind the madness.

Rules and level of difficulty

Of course these structures need to adhere to a few rules.

• restrictions by chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability
• restrictions imposed by limits of mechanosynthesis

This stretches the concept of crystolecules a bit
to quasicrystolecules or glassolecules

Designing and assembling these quasicrystolecules is likely an advanced sill
skill among advanced atomically precise manufacturing

Applications

larger scale superior shape approximations

This is about approximating the shape of larger structures
removing most of the crystallographic steps that one would get
when just carving the shape out of a perfect crystal.

Also it could be used for complex two-axially curved surfaces
where simple strained shell structures can't serve as they mostly only bend in one axis.

For an example:
One concrete interesting likely very useful class of machine elements
that critically needs smooth surfaces curved in two axes (for sealing and low friction):
is the class of progressing cavity pumps.

Potential benefits of quasi amorphous structures

Avoiding high internal stresses and strains

Starting out with a strained structure,
introducing quasi amorphous structure or quasi amorphicity
may in many cases allow to reduce internal stresses-n-strains to near zero.
This should allow for the benefits of:

• retaining FAPP full mechanical strength (improvement of mechanical stability)
  
• avoid fire hazard or even explosion hazard (improvement of thermal and chemical stability)
  

Precise positioning well below the crystal lattice size

For structural connection parts typically on the smaller side
see page: Kaehler bracket

Beyond that:
The bigger the structure
the more accurate a desired alignment can be approximated.

Size and search space

With larger past size the search-space quickly becomes uber astronomically gigantic though.
AI may apply sophisticated learned heuristics.
And perhaps some day Quantum computers could eventually be used
to find optimal atomic arrangements for desired geometries.

Going to the extreme with the approximation accuracy

Even if thermal motions are bigger than the achieved accuracy, over large scales (macroscale) that can average out.
Gravitational wave detectors like LIGO e.g. can detect distances far below the diameter of an atomic core. Which is utterly 🤯.

Related

• Kaehler bracket