An assessment of binary metallic glasses: correlations between structure, glass forming ability and stability

TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of atomic structure on glass forming ability and thermal stability in binary metallic glasses was explored. But the authors focused on the properties of binary metallic glass and did not consider the effects of the atomic structure of the glass.

Abstract: This manuscript explores the influence of atomic structure on glass forming ability and thermal stability in binary metallic glasses. A critical assessment gives literature data for 628 alloys from 175 binary glass systems. The atomic structure is quantified for each alloy using the efficient cluster packing model. Comparison of atomic structure with amorphous thickness and thermal stability gives the following major results. Binary glasses show a strong preference for discrete solute to solvent atomic radius ratios R*, which give efficient local atomic packing. Of 15 possible R* values, only five are common and only four represent the most stable glasses. The most stable binary glasses are also typically solute rich, with enough solute atoms to fill all the solute sites and roughly one-third of the solvent sites. This suggests that antisite defects, where solutes occupy solvent atom sites, are important in the glass forming ability of the most stable glasses. This stabilising effect resul...