Crystal-like Order Stabilizing Glasses: Structural Origin of Ultra-stable Metallic Glasses

Zhen Lu; Anh Khoa Augustin Lu; Fan Zhang; Yuan Tian; Jing Jiang; Daixiu Wei; Jiuhui Han; Qingyang Gao; Koji Ohara; Hidemi Kato; Akihiko Hirata; Mingwei Chen

arXiv · 2111.02606

Crystal-like Order Stabilizing Glasses: Structural Origin of Ultra-stable Metallic Glasses

Zhen Lu·Anh Khoa Augustin Lu·Fan Zhang·Yuan Tian·Jing Jiang·Daixiu Wei·Jiuhui Han·Qingyang Gao·Koji Ohara·Hidemi Kato·Akihiko Hirata·Mingwei Chen

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Abstract

Glasses are featured with a disordered amorphous structure, being opposite to crystals that are constituted by periodic lattices. In this study we report that the exceptional thermodynamic and kinetic stability of an ultra-stable binary ZrCu metallic glass, fabricated by high-temperature physical vapor deposition, originates from ubiquitous crystal-like medium range order (MRO) constituted by Voronoi polyhedron ordering with well-defined local translational symmetry beyond nearest atomic neighbors. The crystal-like MRO significantly improves the thermodynamic and kinetic stability of the glass, which is in opposition to the conventional wisdom that crystal-like order deteriorates the stability and forming ability of metallic glasses. This study unveils the structural origin of ultra-stable metallic glasses and shines a light on the intrinsic correlation of local atomic structure ordering with glass transition of metallic glasses.

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Zhen Lu, Anh Khoa Augustin Lu, Fan Zhang, Yuan Tian, Jing Jiang, Daixiu Wei, Jiuhui Han, Qingyang Gao, Koji Ohara, Hidemi Kato, Akihiko Hirata, Mingwei Chen. 2021-11-04. Crystal-like Order Stabilizing Glasses: Structural Origin of Ultra-stable Metallic Glasses. https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02606

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