Survey of BGFA Criteria for the Cu-Based Bulk Amorphous Alloys

Abstract

To verify the effect of composition on the bulk glass forming ability (BGFA) of Cu-based alloys, properties have been collected from the literature (∼100 papers, more than 200 alloys). Surveying the BGFA criteria published so far, it has been found that the atomic mismatch condition of Egami-Waseda is fulfilled for all the Cu-based BGFAs, the λ value being above 0,3. The Zhang Bangwei criterion could be applied for the binary Cu-based alloys. The Miracle and Senkov criteria do not necessarily apply for Cu based bulk amorphous alloys. The critical thickness versus γ = T x /(T g + T l ) plot of Lu and Liu extrapolates to γ = 0.36, somewhat higher than the 0.33 value found in other BGFA alloys. The Park and Kim parameter correlates rather poorly with the critical thickness for Cu based alloys. The Cheney and Vecchino parameter is a good indicator to find the best glass former if it is possible to calculate the exact liquids projection. In 2009 Xiu-lin and Pan defined a new parameter which correlates a bit better with the critical thickness. Based on this survey it is still very difficult to find one parameter in order to characterize the real GFA without an unrealized mechanism of crystallization.