title: Structural mechanism of the enhanced glass-forming ability in multicomponent alloys with positive heat of mixing.
abstract: The issue, microalloying certain element with positive heat of mixing leading to the enhanced glass forming ability (GFA) in multicomponent alloys, has been investigated by systematic experimental measurements coupled with theoretical calculations. It is found that in the Nb-doped CuZr alloys, strong interaction between Nb and Zr atoms leads to a shortened pair distance. In addition, fraction of the icosahedral-like local structures increases with Nb addition and Nb solutes are apt to be separated with each other. These factors contribute to an increase of the atomic level efficiency to fill space and formation of the short-to-medium range orderings. As a result, the amorphous structure is stabilized and the GFA is enhanced accordingly. This work provides an in-depth understanding of microalloying-induced high GFAs in multicomponent alloys and is helpful for guiding the development of more metallic glasses with high GFAs via microalloying, despite the positive heat of mixing between the constituent elements.
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microelectronic Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, P.R. China.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: G Q
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan, 243002, China.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, P.R. China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang