Microscopic real-space approach to the theory of metallic glasses

The electronic and transport properties of three metallic glass systems, a-Cu60Zn40, a-Mg75Zn25, and a-Ni, are studied by means of realistic microscopic real-space calculations. At low temperature, the transport properties are controlled by the magnitude and the shape of the conductivity function σ/sub E/ near the Fermi energy. It is shown that for a stable metallic glass the Fermi energy is quite close to a local minimum in σ/sub E/ and this causes the negative temperature coefficient of resistivity which is purely due to the elastic scattering of the conduction electrons from the disordered atoms