Liquid Structures of Metallic Glass-forming Binary Zr Alloys

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>We have analyzed liquid structures of the binary Zr-TM (TM=Pd, Cu, Ni) alloys as a function of composition to investigate relations with their glass-forming abilities. High-energy x-ray (<jats:italic>E</jats:italic>=113 keV) diffraction experiments were performed and a conical nozzle levitation (CNL) technique was applied to achieve a containerless condition for highly reactive melts with high temperature. Structure information of the liquid alloys has been obtained with the aid of reverse Monte Carlo simulation. A shoulder was found at high-<jats:italic>Q</jats:italic> side of the second peak for the structure factor for Zr<jats:sub>70</jats:sub>Pd<jats:sub>30</jats:sub> as well as the Zr<jats:sub>70</jats:sub>Cu<jats:sub>30</jats:sub> alloy and the Zr<jats:sub>50</jats:sub>Cu<jats:sub>50</jats:sub> alloys, which can be indication of the formation of ISRO in the liquid alloys. Liquid Zr-Ni alloys shows an apparent difference in the structure factors between the Zr<jats:sub>70</jats:sub>Ni<jats:sub>30</jats:sub> and the Zr<jats:sub>50</jats:sub>Ni<jats:sub>50</jats:sub> alloys, which can be associated with the formation of the chemical short range ordering, whereas the Zr-Pd alloys show a typical random distribution of atoms.</jats:p>