Smoothing metallic glasses without introducing crystallization by gas cluster ion beam Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We show that 30keV Ar cluster ion bombardment of Ni52.5Nb10Zr15Ti15Pt7.5 metallic glass (MG) can remove surface mountain-like features and reduce the root mean square surface roughness from 12nm to 0.7nm. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals no crystallization after cluster ion irradiation. Molecular dynamics simulations show that, although damage cascades lead to local melting, the subsequent quenching rate is a few orders of magnitude higher than the critical cooling rate for MG formation, thus the melted zone retains its amorphous nature down to room temperature. These findings can be applied to obtain ultra-smooth MGs without introducing crystallization.

published proceedings

  • APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

author list (cited authors)

  • Shao, L., Chen, D. i., Myers, M., Wang, J., Tilakaratne, B., Wijesundera, D., ... Lucca, D. A.

citation count

  • 10

complete list of authors

  • Shao, Lin||Chen, Di||Myers, Michael||Wang, Jing||Tilakaratne, Buddhi||Wijesundera, Dharshana||Chu, Wei-Kan||Xie, Guoqiang||Zare, Arezoo||Lucca, Don A

publication date

  • March 2013