Glass forming ability of Zr-Al-Ni(Co,Cu) understood via cluster sharing model

Clusters are shared atoms in different ways with their neighboring clusters in the crystalline phases. Cluster formula [effective cluster]1(glue atom)x can be used to describe crystalline phases, and the effective cluster means the true cluster composition due to cluster overlapping in the phase structure. Degree of cluster sharing of Zr6Al2Ni (InMg2), Zr2Co (Al2Cu) and Zr2Cu (MoSi2) phases is investigated in this paper. Ni3Zr9, Co3Zr8 and Cu5Zr10 clusters are highlighted because they have the least degree of sharing and can best represent the local atomic short-range order features of the formed phases. It is pointed out that the least sharing clusters are correlated with metallic glass formation and are verified by experiments.