Measurements of structural and chemical order in Z r80 P t20 and Z r77 R h23 liquids

The short-range order (SRO) and medium-range order of electrostatically levitated Zr80Pt20 and Zr77Rh23 liquids are presented based on a combination of high-energy x-ray diffraction and time-of-flight neutron diffraction studies. The atomic structures of the Zr80Pt20 liquids were determined as a function of temperature from constrained reverse Monte Carlo simulations using x-ray and elastic neutron scattering measurements and two partial pair-distribution functions obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Analysis of both the Faber-Ziman and Bhatia-Thornton partial structure factors shows that the Zr80Pt20 and Zr77Rh23 liquids have similar topological SRO. Interestingly, the chemical SRO appears to be much more strongly tied to the topological order in the Zr77Rh23 liquid than in the Zr80Pt20. These results demonstrate that the combination of experimental scattering measurements with MD results provides a powerful approach for obtaining details of chemical and topological ordering in metallic glasses and liquids.