The Nanoscale Density Gradient as a Structural Stabilizer for Glass Formation

The rapid cooling of a metallic liquid(ML)results in short-range order(SRO)among the atomic arrangements and a disordered structure in the resulting metallic glass(MG).These phenomena cause various possible features in the microscopic structure of the MG,presenting a puzzle about the nature of the MGs’microscopic structure beyond SRO.In this study,the nanoscale density gradient(NDG)originating from a sequential arrangement of clusters with different atomic packing densities(APDs),representing the medium-range structural heterogeneity in Zr_(60)Cu_(30)Al_(10)MG,was characterized using electron tomography(ET)combined with image simulations based on structure modeling.The coarse polyhedrons with distinct facets identified in the three-dimensional images coincide with icosahedron-like clusters and represent the spatial positions of clusters with high APDs.Rearrangements of the different clusters according to descending APD order in the glass-forming process are responsible for the NDG that stabilizes both the supercooled ML and the amorphous states and acts as a hidden rule in the transition from ML to MG.