On the parameters of glass formation in metallic systems

We have recently noted the structural similarities between the dominant clusters of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with those present in icosahedral phase and intermetallics with large unit cell volume based on the diffraction studies available in literature. Latter belongs to any one of the five space groups. These are I4/mcm (tI12), P6/m (hP68), Fddd (oF48), Fd3m (cF24) and an orthorhombic structure (Al11Sm3) whose space group is not known. We are unaware of such discussion in literature. We also present a Venn diagram based on compositionally dependent and independent parameters to classify the BMG alloy systems. It has been observed that there are two distinct categories of BMGs. One class displays Fermi surface–brillouin zone interaction whereas the other does not follow this criterion. We believe that such a classification will be helpful in knowing their characteristics with respect to some of their applications.