Bulk metallic glasses based on rare-earth elements in lanthanum series

A series of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) based on the rare-earth (RE) elements in lanthanum family have been obtained by a copper mold casting method. These chemical comparable RE elements with 'continuous' range of atomic size, electron structure and elastic constants may provide a good system for systematically exploring the BMG-forming characteristics. The glass-forming ability, elastic properties, thermal stability and their correlations in the RE-based BMGs have been investigated.