Effect of local structures and atomic packing on glass forming ability in CuxZr100−x metallic glasses

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed for CuZr metallic alloys to study the structural and dynamical features for glass forming ability (GFA). Our analysis shows that in CuZr metallic system, although ⟨0,0,12,0⟩ icosahedral clusters are important, some Zr-centered clusters such as ⟨0,1,10,4⟩ and ⟨0,1,10,5⟩ play a key role in slowing down the dynamics. It is found that these Zr-centered clusters are intrinsically slow and fundamentally determine the stability and slow dynamics. Due to the strong spatial correlation between ⟨0,0,12,0⟩ and Zr-centered clusters, their relative population influences the dense packing and dynamics in metallic glasses, and further the GFA.