An amorphous Lennard-Jones solid has been severely deformed in a shearing manner by using computer molecular-statics techniques. The orientational order parameter $Q_6$ is significantly increased before the onset of the shear localization. Computer-generated optical diffraction patterns show that a phase with explicit sixfold symmetry in one projection, and with fourfold and twofold symmetry in the other two projections (a tendency towards a close-packed layer structure) appears in the severely deformed system. The radial distribution functions, however, show no apparent crystallization occurring.

• Received 27 August 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.34.7407