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A structural model for metallic glasses

Nature Materials volume 3, pages 697–702 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite the intense interest in metallic glasses for a variety of engineering applications, many details of their structure remain a mystery. Here, we present the first compelling atomic structural model for metallic glasses. This structural model is based on a new sphere-packing scheme—the dense packing of atomic clusters. Random positioning of solvent atoms and medium-range atomic order of solute atoms are combined to reproduce diffraction data successfully over radial distances up to ∼1 nm. Although metallic glasses can have any number of chemically distinct solute species, this model shows that they contain no more than three topologically distinct solutes and that these solutes have specific and predictable sizes relative to the solvent atoms. Finally, this model includes defects that provide richness to the structural description of metallic glasses. The model accurately predicts the number of solute atoms in the first coordination shell of a typical solvent atom, and provides a remarkable ability to predict metallic-glass compositions accurately for a wide range of simple and complex alloys.

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Figure 1: Illustrations of portions of a single cluster unit cell for the dense cluster packing model.
Figure 2: Comparison of relative atomic sizes and concentrations for selected metallic glasses with predictions from the dense cluster-packing model (see ref. 39 for further details of this mode of presentation).
Figure 3: Comparison of relative atomic sizes and concentrations for selected Fe-based metallic glasses with predictions from the dense cluster-packing model (see ref. 39 for further details of this mode of presentation).
Figure 4: Comparison of predicted and experimental solute–solute reduced partial radial distribution functions (Gij) for selected binary metallic glasses.

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Acknowledgements

I thank A. L. Greer and K.F. Kelton for critical comments on this manuscript. This research was supported under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Structural Amorphous Metals Initiative (L. Christodoulou, Program Manager) and Air Force Office of Scientific Research Task 01ML05–COR (C. Hartley, Program Manager).

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  1. Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 45433, USA

    Daniel B. Miracle

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Miracle, D. A structural model for metallic glasses. Nature Mater 3, 697–702 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1219

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