Compositional landscape for glass formation in metal alloys.

ABSTRACT: A high-resolution compositional map of glass-forming ability (GFA) in the Ni-Cr-Nb-P-B system is experimentally determined along various compositional planes. GFA is shown to be a piecewise continuous function formed by intersecting compositional subsurfaces, each associated with a nucleation pathway for a specific crystalline phase. Within each subsurface, GFA varies exponentially with composition, wheres exponential cusps in GFA are observed when crossing from one crystallization pathway to another. The overall GFA is shown to peak at multiple exponential hypercusps that are interconnected by ridges. At these compositions, quenching from the high-temperature melt yields glassy rods with diameters exceeding 1 cm, whereas for compositions far from these cusps the critical rod diameter drop

SUBMITTER: Na JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4078826 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature