Glass formation of ternary Sin-based Sm-AI-Co bulk metallic glasses

Ternary Sm-based Sm-AI-Co alloys at specific compositions designed using an e/a- and cluster-related criteria exhibit high glass forming abilities and form bulk glassy rods of 3 mm in diameter by a copper mold suction-casting method. Four compositions of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are Sm50Al25Co25, Sm52Al24Co24, Sm54Al23Co23 and Sm56Al22Co22, which all satisfy a constant conduction electron concentration of 1.5. Among them, the BMG exhibiting the largest reduced glass transition temperature (Trg) is Sm50Al25Co25, which reaches 0.648. The glass transition temperature Tg and the onset crystallization temperature Tx of this alloy are respectively 579 and 640 K at a heating rate of 20 K/min.