Cooling materials super-quickly, called rapid solidification, prevents the normal crystalline structures of materials from forming, often creating unique properties in the process. If single crystal growth techniques sit at one end of the materials synthesis spectrum, promoting the growth of that material’s equilibrium crystalline structure, rapid solidification techniques promote the opposite effect, cooling the material so quickly from liquid to solid, that the crystals formed are small, or in some cases non-existent, becoming amorphous or glass-like with no discernable crystalline pattern to their overall molecular structure.