Abstract
The local atomic structures of Fe-and Al-based amorphous metallic glasseshave been investigated by the pair density function (PDF) analysis ofneutron diffraction data. In the Fe system, chemical substitution at thetransition metal ion sites induces significant changes of the local structuralenvironment. With the substitution of Nb for Zr and Mn for Fe, a pre-peak in thestructure function is observed that is indicative of short-range chemicalrearrangement. This is accompanied by a reduction of volume in realspace and a contraction of interatomic pair correlations that could inturn be associated with stronger glass forming ability. In the Al–Ni–Ndsystem, using the isotope difference neutron PDF technique, the localenvironments for Ni and Nd were separately determined. The Ni ions tendto form strong interactions with Al with significant shortening of thebond length and weaker interactions with Nd. The local Ni–Al cluster isalmost spherical with a coordination close to twelve nearest neighbours,while Ni–Ni chemical short-range ordering is quite strong as indicated bythe change of amplitude of the pre-peak with the isotopic substitution.On the other hand, the local Nd environment is more disordered withtwo separate Nd–Al coordination environments and weaker clustering.
Published Version
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