Structural study of Ni₆₇Zr₃₃ amorphous alloy: Interatomic space analysis approach

The structure of Ni₆₇Zr₃₃ amorphous alloy was studied in terms of interatomic space. The three-dimensional atomic configuration of this amorphous alloy was analysed by using a method of decomposing the whole volume into basic polyhedra with only triangular faces formed by nearest neighbour distances. Various types of polyhedra were identified through the analysis. The tetrahedra account for approximately 60% of the whole volume, and most of them are densely packed but some are loosely packed. The large polyhedra have empty spaces commensurate with their own sizes but they are often deformed and non-spherical in shape. That is, spherical empty spaces are not as large as atomic volumes and there is no space in which any atoms enter. These low density polyhedra are more likely to gather together and they form the loosely packed clusters about the size of several nanometers.