Atomistic mechanism of bulk metallic glass formation

The question of alloy selection for bulk metallic glasses is addressed from the atomistic point of view, in relation to the fragility of liquid. By extending the topological theory of glass formation to multi-component systems, it is suggested that increasing the number of elements involved, increasing the atomic size ratio, increasing the attractive force between small and large atoms, and introducing a repulsive potential between small atoms will help the formation of bulk metallic glasses. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.