Phase diagram features and glass forming ability of liquid - quenched binary alloys

Abstract

The tendency to/glass formation has been discussed in the light of the driving force for nucleation in a binary alloy melt. The relationship between phase diagram features such as slopes of liquidus and solidus lines, extent of solid solubility, existence of intermetallic phases etc., and observed composition ranges of glass formation is highlighted. It is shown that glass forming compositions will be symmetric with respect to the eutectic composition only in the case of pure metal eutectics with normal entropies of solution of the solid phase in the eutectic liquid. In most other cases the glass-forming composition range is shown to be asymmetric with respect to the eutectic.