Origin Of Glass Forming Ability Of Cu-Zr Alloys: A Link Between Compositional Variation And Stability Of Liquid And Glass

Here, we provide a link which shows how the compositional change affects the liquid and glass stabilities by measuring temperature-time transformation (TTT) diagram of Cu-Zr alloys, revealing the origin of glass forming ability (GFA) with composition. From the TTT study, we find that the compositional change yields a different origin of GFA for the three best bulk metallic glasses (Cu64Zr36, Cu56Zr44, and Cu50Zr50) due to varying stabilities of liquid and glass, which explains maxima observed in undercoolability, persisting time at nose temperature, and crystal-liquid interfacial free energy.