Correlation between mechanical behavior and glass forming ability of Zr–Cu metallic glasses

A series of Zr–Cu glassy ribbons were fabricated, and the compositional dependence of microhardness in the as-quenched and annealed state was systematically investigated. The as-quenched microhardness exhibits a positive deviation from linearity at the compositions which correspond to local maximum in glass forming ability (GFA). Upon annealing, the microhardness change is relatively smaller for the high GFA compositions. High atomic packing density at the special compositions should be responsible for the microhardness behavior.

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► The microhardness of Zr–Cu metallic glass was systematically investigated.
► We find the correlation between microhardness behavior and glass forming ability.
► Microhardness behavior verifies denser packing state of high GFA compositions.