Local atomic correlations of bulk amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe alloys

Samples of bulk amorphous Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 and two related alloys have been heat treated in the supercooled liquid state and above the crystallization temperature. Wide angle neutron scattering experiments lead to very similar total structure factors S(Q) for both states. They show the characteristic modulations of amorphous material. The total pair correlation functions g(R) obtained by Fourier transformation of S(Q) exhibit three main groups of peaks corresponding to the coordination shells. For all samples and heat treatments the total coordination numbers for the first coordination shell are Z=12 +/- 0.7 indicating a dense packing of the atoms. By assigning pair correlations to the different maxima in g(R) partial coordination numbers of Be and Zr were estimated (C) 1999 Acta Metallurgica Inc.