Molecular dynamics simulations of supercooled liquid metals and glasses

The thermodynamic, transport and structural properties of a binary metallic glass former in solid, liquid, and glass phases were studied using molecular dynamics simulation. We used a model binary alloy system with a sufficient atomic size mismatch and observed a glass transition in a quenching process. The diffusivity and viscosity were calculated in the liquid state and the super-cooled liquid state. The smaller atom showed higher diffusivity and more configurational randomness compared to the larger atom. The viscosity increased abruptly around the glass transition temperature. The solvent/solute concentration effect on the glass transition was examined in terms of a packing fraction. We find that the glass forming ability increases with the packing fraction in the liquid state because the densely-packed material requires more time to rearrange and crystallize.