Cooling rate dependence of the icosahedral order of amorphous CuNi alloy: A molecular dynamics simulation

• The icosahedral order is determined of model alloy system for different cooling rates.
• The ideal icosahedral order has been decreased with increasing cooling rate.
• HA pair analysis method has been employed in order to detect icosahedral order.

In this study, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is carried out to obtain glass formation and icosahedral order for Cu–%50Ni model alloy system with 10,976 atoms based on embedded atom model (EAM) during the cooling processes. The structural development and icosahedral order of alloy system are analysed with the radial distribution function (RDF), the bond orientational order parameters and Honeycutt–Andersen (HA) bond-type index method. By looking into the amorphous-type bonded pairs within the atomic clusters and by analysing bond orientational order parameters (icos Q6 and icos Wˆ6), the icosahedral order is investigated under different cooling processes for the model alloy system.