The connection between the fragile-to-strong transition and the liquid-liquid transition in a binary alloy system

Abstract

Although the liquid-liquid transition (LLT) and the fragile-to-strong (F-S) transition occur in many of glass-forming liquids, the fundamental question about whether and how the two transitions are connected with one another remains unanswered. Here we report an inverse correlation between the F-S transition and the liquid-liquid transition by comparing the glass forming ability (GFA) among various CuZr metallic systems. Based on both molecular dynamic simulations and experiments, the inverse correlation is associated with the difference in the cluster rearrangements between supercooled and equilibrium liquids. We have found and clarified why the LLT is not pronounced for some of alloy systems. Finally we have established a general law for the structural inheritance of equilibrium MGFLs to glass state. The findings in this work are useful for designing the metallic systems with high GFA.