Influence of icosahedral order on the second peak splitting of pair distribution function for Mg70Zn30 metallic glass

A simulation study has been performed for the rapid solidification process of Mg70Zn30 metallic glass by using molecular dynamics method. Several structural analysis methods have been adopted to characterize and analyze the atomic configurations in the system. Based on the geometry analysis of the icosahedron and the intercross-shared (IS) cluster linked of two icosahedra, it is confirmed that the second peak splitting in pair distribution function (PDF) g(r) curve of Mg70Zn30 metallic glass is mainly caused by the IS clusters, and its corresponding to R2/R1 = 1.69, R3/R1 = 1.98 and R4/R1 = 2.57, can be reasonably explained.