Molecular-dynamics simulations of glass formation and crystallization in binary liquid metals: Cu-ag and cu-ni

We used molecular dynamics (MD) to obtain an atomistic description of the melting, glass formation, and crystallization processes in metal alloys. These studies use the quantum Sutton-Chen many-body potentials for Cu, Ni, and Ag to examine the (Formula presented) and CuNi alloys. Using cooling rates in the range of (Formula presented) to (Formula presented) we find that CuNi and pure Cu always form a face-centered-cubic (fcc) crystal while (Formula presented) always forms a glass (with (Formula presented) decreasing as the quench rate increases). The crystal formers have radius ratios of 1.025 (CuNi) and 1.00 (Cu) while the glass former (CuAg) has a ratio of 1.13, confirming the role of size mismatch in biasing toward glass formation.