Influence of cluster correlation on nanoclusters in Fe-Ni amorphous alloys

Abstract To investigate the relationship between cluster correlation index and nanoclusters during rapid solidification, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study has been performed for FexNi(100−x)(40≤x≤80) amorphous alloys. Six kinds of common amorphous clusters with great similarity is explored by the newly developed Largest Standard Cluster Analysis (LSCA). The spatial distribution of clusters is analyzed by correlation index, which are divided into strongly correlated clusters and weakly correlated clusters, and the effects of two different correlation clusters on the formation of nanoclusters are quantitatively researched. The results reveal that Z14 correlation index of own connection is the strongest and increases with the increase of Fe content, while the correlation index between A13 and D-A13 is the weakest and it is not obvious with the increase of Fe content. In addition, Fe-rich alloys are more likely to congregate to form large-sized nanoclusters with high packing density due to the strong correlation index. Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.