Structure-induced microalloying effect in multicomponent alloys

Abstract In this work, the microalloying effect on glass-forming ability (GFA) has been investigated from the structural aspect, by performing synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction and absorption measurements coupled with simulations in the NiNbZr ternary system. By sorting out the preferred Voronoi clusters, we propose a new structural parameter which counts the fraction of the five-connected shell atoms in clusters and find it is strongly associated with the GFA. In particular, this structural parameter has the highest value in a composition where the best GFA is achieved. The present work provides an in-depth understanding of microalloying-induced high GFAs in multicomponent alloys.