Connectivity of the Icosahedral Network and a Dramatically Growing Static Length Scale in Cu-Zr Binary Metallic Glasses

Abstract

We report on and characterize, via molecular dynamics (MD) studies, the evolution of the structure of Cu50Zr50 and Cu64Zr36 metallic glasses (MGs) as temperature is varied. Interestingly, a percolating icosahedral network appears in the Cu64Zr36 system as it is supercooled. This leads us to introduce a static length scale, which grows dramatically as this three dimensional system approaches the glass transition. Amidst interpenetrating connections, non-interpenetrating connections between icosahedra are shown to become prevalent upon supercooling and to greatly enhance the connectivity of the MG's icosahedral network. Additionally, we characterize the chemical compositions of the icosahedral networks and their components. These findings demonstrate the importance of non-interpenetrating connections for facilitating extensive structural networks in Cu-Zr MGs, which in turn drive dynamical slowing in these materials.

9 pages and 8 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Theoretical perspective on the glass transition and amorphous materials
• Glassy dynamics of kinetically constrained models
• Growing length and time scales in glass forming liquids
• Rigorous Inequalities between Length and Time Scales in Glassy Systems
• Growing point-to-set length scale correlates with growing relaxation times in model supercooled liquids
• Structure and dynamics in glass-formers: predictability at large length scales
• Cooperativity Beyond Caging: Generalized Mode Coupling Theory
• Decorrelation of the static and dynamic length scales in hard-sphere glass-formers
• Probing a critical length scale at the glass transition
• Static triplet correlations in glass-forming liquids: A molecular dynamics study
• Glass Phenomenology from the Connection to Spin Glasses

Cited by in corpus (26)

• A transferable machine-learning framework linking interstice distribution and plastic heterogeneity in metallic glasses
• A locally preferred structure characterises all dynamical regimes of a supercooled liquid
• Crystalline 'Genes' in Metallic Liquids
• Cooling rate dependence of simulated $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_{64.5}\mathrm{Z}{\mathrm{r}}_{35.5}$ metallic glass structure
• Critical scaling of icosahedral medium-range order in CuZr metallic glass-forming liquids
• Short-Range Order Structure Motifs Learned from an Atomistic Model of a Zr${}_{50}$Cu${}_{45}$Al${}_5$ Metallic Glass
• Dimensionality reduction of local structure in glassy binary mixtures
• Correlation of the fragility of metallic liquids with the high temperature structure, volume, and cohesive energy
• Nucleation instability in super-cooled Cu-Zr-Al glass-forming liquids
• Dynamical, structural and chemical heterogeneities in a binary metallic glass-forming liquid
• Structure and glass-forming ability of simulated Ni-Zr alloys
• Structure of inactive states of a binary Lennard-Jones mixture
• Dynamics of a monodisperse Lennard-Jones system on a sphere
• Simulated Cu-Zr glassy alloys: the impact of composition on icosahedral order
• Effects of Si solute on the glass formation and atomic structure of Pd liquid
• Recasting a model atomistic glassformer as a system of icosahedra
• A Dramatically Growing Shear Rigidity Length Scale in a Supercooled Glass Former ($NiZ{r}_2$)
• Suppressed Density of States in Self-Generated Coulomb Glasses
• Granular packing as model glass formers
• Unexpected Universality in the Viscosity of Metallic Liquids
• Probing Local Structure in Glass by the Application of Shear
• Inference of hidden structures in complex physical systems by multi-scale clustering
• Compositional Effects on Structure, Dynamics, Thermodynamic and Mechanical Properties of Zr-Cu-Al alloys
• Polytetrahedral short-range order and crystallization stability in supercooled $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{u}}_{64.5}\mathrm{Z}{\mathrm{r}}_{35.5}$ metallic liquid
• Graph-Dynamics correspondence in metallic glass-forming liquids
• Liquid-to-liquid phase transition underlying the structural crossover in a supercooled metallic liquid