The formation of Cu-Zr-Nb metallic glass was predicted by thermodynamic calculation and then five Cu-Zr-Nb ternary metallic multilayered films were designed and prepared by electron depositing. The metastable supersaturated solid solutions, amorphous phase as well as their composites were able to be obtained in these Cu-Zr-Nb metallic multilayered films upon ion beam mixing. The observations provided a clew to improve the ductibility of the metallic glasses. Some possible interpretations were presented concerning the formation of the crystalline-amorphous composite.
A negative correlation of glass formation ability (GFA) with the critical dosage (Dc) is first proposed for amorphous alloys formed by ion beam mixing (IBM), i.e. the lower the Dc the better the GFA, implying that Dc could serve as a GFA indicator.
Atomistic Simulations to Predict Favored Glass-Formation Composition and Ion-Beam-Mixing of Nano-Multiple-Metal-Layers to Produce Ternary Amorphous Films