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The atomic structure of metallic glasses (MGs) plays an important role on their properties. Numerous molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have revealed the icosahedral short range order (ISRO) as a dominant motif in Cu-Zr metallic glasses.However, the cooling rates utilized in most of the MD simulations (usually on the order of 10 10-13 K/s) can be too high to allow the structure to relax into the actual structures. By performing a long sub-T g annealing of the Cu 64.5 Zr 35.5 alloy model at 700 K up to 2.0 μs using MD simulations, we systematically address the evolution of medium range order (MRO) as the cooling rates in MD simulations approach the experimental cooling rates (usually 10 3-6 K/s). By reducing the effective cooling rates to as low as 2.8×10 7 K/s, we found a significant enhancement of the ISRO and Bergman-type MRO. Comparing to the widely used face-, edge-or vertex-sharing icosahedra, we propose that the Bergman-type MRO is a much more unambiguous metric to characterize the MRO in Cu-Zr MGs. By analyzing the network formed by interpenetrating icosahedra using the graphical theory, we show that the degree of interpenetration of the icosahedra centers increases with decreasing cooling rates. The network becomes aggressively assortative, indicating that higher degree nodes tend to cluster and form backbones in the MG. All these results show that the networks in the models prepared using lower cooling rates strongly deviate from a string-like morphology. PACS number(s): 61.43. Dq, 61.43.Bn

We present an efficient genetic algorithm, integrated with experimental diffraction data, to solve a nanoscale metastable Al20Sm4 phase that evolves during crystallization of an amorphous magnetron sputtered Al90Sm10 alloy. The excellent match between calculated and experimental X-ray diffraction patterns confirms an accurate description of this metastable phase. Molecular dynamic simulations of crystal growth from the liquid phase predict the formation of disordered defects in the devitrified crystal.

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