A model for the structures of amorphous metal-metalloid alloys

Abstract

From the viewpoint of statistical thermodynamics, we investigated the process and mechanism of formation of amorphous structures for amorphous metal-metalloid alloys prepared by melt quenching. A model of double-layer structural units was proposed to describe the microscopic structures of these amorphous alloys. Using this model, we found that the upper limit of the metalloid content is about 30.47 at. % in metal-metalloid amorphous alloys. The model provides a reasonable explanation for the influence of the metalloid content on the formation of amorphous metal-metalloid alloys.