Pressure‐induced polyamorphism in lanthanide‐solute metallic glasses

Abstract

The electronic structure inheritance of lanthanide‐solvent atoms in lanthanide‐based metallic glasses has been proposed. Is a polyamorphism possible in lanthanide‐solute metallic glasses? So far, polyamorphic phase transitions in metallic glass containing lanthanide have been observed only in lanthanide‐solvent metallic glasses. Here, a pressure‐induced transition between two distinct amorphous states, accompanied by a 7% volume collapse at ambient pressure, was observed in La43.4Pr18.6Al14Cu24 metallic glass, with low lanthanide content, by using in situ X‐ray total scattering method. The transformation also indicated by changes in short range and medium range order. Thus, it is proposed that the lanthanide‐solute metallic glasses also inherit 4f electronic transition from pure lanthanide element in polyamorphic transition. This discovery offers a supplement to research on lanthanide‐based metallic glasses, which further provides a new perspective of the polyamorphic transformation in metallic glasses containing lanthanide element.