Amorphization of Ni–Al alloys by fast quenching from the liquid state: a molecular dynamics study

By means of constant temperature, constant thermodynamic tension molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the embedded atom model proposed by Voter and Chen, we investigated the glass-forming ability of the alloys Ni3Al, NiAl and NiAl3 under rapid quenching from the liquid state. Although the system Ni–Al does not form a glass when quenched from the liquid or vapour phases at the quenching rates achieved by conventional rapid quenching methods, at the very fast cooling rates used in this study the simulated system was amorphized from the liquid state at all compositions considered. This is consistent with the results of laser quenching experiments.