In situ neutron scattering studies of a liquid-liquid phase transition in the supercooled liquid of a Zr-Cu-Al-Ag glass-forming alloy

Weixia Dong; Zhenduo Wu; Jiacheng Ge; Sinan Liu; Si Lan; Elliot Paul Gilbert; Yang Ren; Dong Ma; Xun-Li Wang

doi:10.1063/5.0048486

Author(s)

Zhenduo Wu
Jiacheng Ge
Sinan Liu
Si Lan
Elliot Paul Gilbert
Dong Ma

Related Research Unit(s)

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Article number	191901
Journal / Publication	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	118
Issue number	19
Publication status	Published - 10 May 2021

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0048486 Final Published version
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Attachment(s)	Documents 76685322.pdf Final Published version, 2.12 MB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Weixia Dong, Zhenduo Wu, Jiacheng Ge, Sinan Liu, Si Lan, Elliot Paul Gilbert, Yang Ren, Dong Ma, and Xun-Li Wang , "In situ neutron scattering studies of a liquid–liquid phase transition in the supercooled liquid of a Zr–Cu–Al–Ag glass-forming alloy", Appl. Phys. Lett. 118, 191901 (2021) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0048486.
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85105734668&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(3eedd946-927d-4630-a281-638db7399f35).html

Abstract

The presence of a liquid-liquid phase transition in the supercooled-liquid temperature range for a glass-forming Zr-Cu-Al-Ag alloy has been revealed using a suite of in situ neutron scattering techniques, including small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and total neutron scattering. The SANS data analysis is indicative of the enhancement of nanoscale structural heterogeneities prior to crystallization, which is further supported by the total scattering result that points to an increase in the degree of medium-range ordering during the transition. In addition, a calorimetric anomaly and abnormal thermal expansion behavior were also observed upon heating. As such, this study provides multiscale structural evidence on the liquid-liquid phase transition and helps to gain insight into its underlying mechanism in terms of cluster connectivity.