Molecular dynamic simulation of glass formation in binary liquid metal: Cu–Ag using EAM

Based on the embedded-atom method, a constant-pressure, constant-temperature molecular dynamics technique is applied to obtain an atomic description of glass formation process in eutectic Cu40Ag60 alloy. By using radial distribution function and pair analysis methods, the structure and glass forming ability of this alloy is studied by quenching from the liquid at different cooling rates (1 £ 10, 1 £ 10, 5 £ 10, 1 £ 10 and 1 £ 10 K/s). It is observed that the retention of amorphous structure requires extremely high cooling rates. Structure analyses of the alloys in the simulations reveal the evolvement of the different clusters at various quenching rate during the quenching process. q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.