Evolution of atomic ordering in metallic glasses

A new atomistic model involving quasi-ordered metastable structures has been proposed recently for nanocrystallization of metallic glasses (MGs). However, the physical driving force for such unique phase transformation has not been elucidated at present. In this paper, we firstly verify this unique model experimentally by HRTEM via a careful tilt operation. Secondly, atomistic simulations by molecular dynamics have led to identifying the strain energy term governing the step-by-step planar ordering in MGs. Thus, our study has provided a fundamental understanding of the atomic ordering and nanocrystallization mechanism in MGs and other amorphous materials.