The icosahedral short-range order and its local structures in Cu₅₀Zr₄₀Al₁₀ alloy

Local structures are the fundamental consideration in the formation and properties of metallic glasses. Icosahedral clusters are the essential basic clusters in amorphous alloys. The icosahedral short-range order structures and their local structures in Cu₅₀Zr₄₀Al₁₀ alloy were investigated in this study based on the molecular dynamics simulation. The properties of the short-range order were analyzed by several structural characterization methods. The central atoms of 〈0 2 8 1〉, 〈0 2 8 2〉, 〈0 0 12 0〉 and 〈0 3 6 3〉 clusters were dominated by small Cu atoms, while that happened to prevail in 〈0 3 6 4〉, 〈0 2 8 3〉 and 〈0 2 8 4〉 clusters were the big Zr atoms. The Cu and Zr atoms have equal probability to be the central atoms of 〈0 1 10 2〉 clusters during the rapid solidification of liquid Cu₅₀Zr₄₀Al₁₀ alloy. The icosahedral clusters were bonded with eight typical Voronoi polyhedrons by interpenetrating connection and formed the short-range order structures and their local structures. Moreover, in their local structures, icosahedral clusters are mainly interconnected with the defective icosahedral clusters. (paper)