Related Structure Characters and Stability of Structural Defects in a Metallic Glass

Xiaofeng Niu; Shidong Feng; Shaopeng Pan

doi:10.3390/ma11040468

Related Structure Characters and Stability of Structural Defects in a Metallic Glass

Materials (Basel). 2018 Mar 22;11(4):468. doi: 10.3390/ma11040468.

Authors

Xiaofeng Niu^{1

2}, Shidong Feng³, Shaopeng Pan^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. niu.xiao.feng@126.com.
² Shanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Magnesium-Based Materials, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. niu.xiao.feng@126.com.
³ Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research Centre, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China. shidong.feng@polyu.edu.hk.
⁴ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. panshaopeng@tyut.edu.cn.
⁵ Shanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Magnesium-Based Materials, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. panshaopeng@tyut.edu.cn.

Abstract

Structural defects were investigated by a recently proposed structural parameter, quasi-nearest atom (QNA), in a modeled Zr₅₀Cu₅₀ metallic glass through molecular dynamics simulations. More QNAs around an atom usually means that more defects are located near the atom. Structural analysis reveals that the spatial distribution of the numbers of QNAs displays to be clearly heterogeneous. Furthermore, QNA is closely correlated with cluster connections, especially four-atom cluster connections. Atoms with larger coordination numbers usually have less QNAs. When two atoms have the same coordination number, the atom with larger five-fold symmetry has less QNAs. The number of QNAs around an atom changes rather frequently and the change of QNAs might be correlated with the fast relaxation metallic glasses.

Keywords: metallic glass; molecular dynamics simulations; quasi-nearest atom.