Atomic diffusion in liquid alloys

We investigate the atomic motion in liquids on Ni-, Pd-, and Zr- basis in order to clarify the microscopic transport mechanisms. High-resolution energy and momentum information from neutron scattering experiments allows to study how the atomic dynamics depends on structural properties, and in some special cases to derive the self diffusion coefficient of one particular component on an absolute scale. Results on binary alloys and multicomponent bulk glass forming melts, reveal non-trivial mechanisms of mass transport. We show that the relation between equilibrium melt structure and atomic transport is well described by a mode-coupling theory. Our findings are discussed in the context of results obtained by molecular dynamics simulations and long capillary diffusion experiments performed by other groups within the SPP 1120