Nanoscale structure and structural relaxation in Zr 50Cu 45Al 5 bulk metallic glass

Abstract

Hybrid reverse Monte Carlo simulations of the structure of Zr 50Cu 45Al 5 bulk metallic glass incorporating medium-range structure from fluctuation electron microscopy data and short-range structure from an embedded atom potential produce structures with significant fractions of icosahedral- and crystal-like atomic clusters. Similar clusters group together into nanometer-scale regions, and relaxation transforms crystal-like clusters into icosahedral clusters. A model refined against only the potential does not agree with the fluctuation microscopy data and contains few crystal-like clusters. © 2012 American Physical Society.