Structural changes in liquid Fe and Fe-B alloy on cooling

The existence of liquid-liquid phase transitions has been suggested for liquid Fe and some of its alloys. In order to shed light on this phenomenon in-situ cooling of the Fe80B20 and Fe melts was performed under a synchrotron beam radiation. It allowed for the continuous acquisition of X-ray diffraction spectra in the supercooled liquid region below the liquidus temperature. The procedure allowed monitoring of the structural changes in the supercooled liquid state using real-space atomic pair PDF(R) and radial RDF(R) distribution functions. The results are discussed in comparison with those of molecular dynamics simulation for liquid Fe.