Correlation of the heredity of icosahedral clusters with the glass forming ability of rapidly solidified CuxZr100 − x alloys

• Glass transition of TM–TM alloys arises from clustering of atoms towards icosahedra.
• Heredity of local atomic configurations is an intrinsic feature of rapidly solidified alloys.
• GFAs depend on continuous hereditary ability of IMROs from super-cooled liquids to solids.

A series of molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the influence of x-dependent heredity of icosahedral clusters on the glass formation ability of rapidly solidified CuxZr100 − x alloys. An inverse tracking of atom traces reveals that the icosahedral medium-range orders inherited from super-cooled liquids of Tm − Tg play a crucial role in the formation of CuxZr100 − x glassy alloys. Not only is the descendible fraction from glass transition temperature Tg to 300 K intimately correlated with their critical thickness, but the local maxima in the difference between the onset temperature of heredity Tonset and critical transition temperature Tc deduced from the clustering degree of atoms towards icosahedrons precisely match with the three optimal glass forming compositions in experiments.