One explanation for the glass transition is a geometrical frustration owing to the development of non-space-filling short-range order (icosahedral, tetrahedral). However, experimental demonstrations of this are lacking. Here, the first quantitative measurements of the time-dependent nucleation rate in a Zr59Ti3Cu20Ni8Al10 bulk metallic glass are combined with the first measurements of the evolution of the supercooled liquid structure to near the glass transition temperature to provide strong support for an icosahedral-order-based frustration model for the glass transition in Zr-based glasses.

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Articles you may be interested inEffects of quasicrystal formation on the crystallization of (Ti36.1Zr33.2Ni5.8Be24.9)100−xCux (x=5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17) metallic glasses J. Appl. Phys. 113, 033508 (2013); 10.1063/1.4775836 Decomposition and metastable phase formation in the bulk metallic glass matrix composite Zr 56 Ti 14 Nb 5 Cu 7 Ni 6 Be 12It has been widely reported that glass formation improves in Zr 62 Cu 20 Ni 8 Al 10 alloys when small amounts of Ti are substituted for Zr. Glasses containing greater than 3 at. % Ti crystallize to a metastable icosahedral phase, suggesting that Ti enhances icosahedral short-range order in the liquid/glass, making crystallization more difficult during cooling. However, based on containerless solidification and in situ high-energy synchrotron diffraction studies of electrostatically levitated supercooled liquids of these alloys, we demonstrate that Ti inhibits surface crystallization but neither increases the icosahedral short-range order nor improves glass formation.