Medium-range structural order in liquid Ni20Al80 alloy: Experimental and molecular dynamics studies

In this Letter, structural properties of liquid Ni20Al80 have been studied through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and results agree well with X-ray experiments. The prepeak in the structure factor manifests the existence of medium-range structural order (MRSO) in liquid Ni20Al80. Analyses in MRSO reveal the dominance of ideal icosahedra and defective icosahedra which, furthermore, form clusters and share common atoms.