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Correlation between the atomic configurations and the amorphous-to-icosahedral phase transition in metallic glasses

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Abstract

Positron annihilation spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry were used to evaluate the changes of the atomic configurations in Zr-based metallic glasses (MGs) due to alloying and plastic deformation. The correlation between the atomic configurations of MGs and the amorphous-to-icosahedral phase transition due to heating was investigated. The results indicate that the free volume frozen in the as-cast Zr60Al15Ni25, Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5, and Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5Ag5 MGs substantially decreases in sequence. More excess free volume is introduced in Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5Ag5 MG due to cold rolling and milling. The annihilation of free volume due to alloying considerably stabilizes the icosahedral structure of MGs, which enhances the nucleation and growth of quasicrystals upon heating. However, the nucleation and growth of quasicrystals are considerably suppressed in Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5Ag5 MG due to cold rolling and milling, during which the more introduced excess free volume results in substantial destruction of short-range order with 5-fold symmetry. The present work further provides direct evidence for the prevalence of icosahedral short-range order in MGs.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51561001, 51441004, and 51204118), the Program for Excellent Talents of Shanxi Province, China (2010), the Fund Program for the Scientific Activities of Selected Returned Overseas Professionals in Shanxi Province (2014), the Research Project of the Shanxi Scholarship Council of China (2015-87), and the “131” Leading Talent Project of Universities in Shanxi Province (2015). Additional support by the German Science Foundation under the Leibniz Program (Grant No. EC 111/26-1) and the ERC Advanced Grant “INTELHYB — Next Generation of Complex Metallic Materials in Intelligent Hybrid Structures” (Grant No. ERC-2013-ADG-340025) is gratefully acknowledged. Z.Y. would like to express appreciation to Dr. X.P. Hao and B.Y. Wang (Key Laboratory of Nuclear Analysis Techniques, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science) for their kind help with the PAS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, 750021, People’s Republic of China

    Guihong Geng & Zhijie Yan

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, People’s Republic of China

    Zhijie Yan

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People’s Republic of China

    Yong Hu

  4. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Zhi Wang

  5. Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Leoben, 8700, Austria

    Sergey V. Ketov & Jürgen Eckert

  6. Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben, 8700, Austria

    Jürgen Eckert

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  1. Guihong Geng
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Correspondence to Zhijie Yan.

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This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/editor-manuscripts/.

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Geng, G., Yan, Z., Hu, Y. et al. Correlation between the atomic configurations and the amorphous-to-icosahedral phase transition in metallic glasses. Journal of Materials Research 33, 2775–2783 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.187

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