This thesis presents a structural study of Ni-Zr metallic glasses. It is the first time that a careful complete and systematic investigation into the structure of a glassy metallic system has been carried out. The results have improved our understanding of the structure of metallic glasses and clarified confusion in previous studies. The total structure factors of melt-spun and sputtered amorphous Ni$ sb{x}$Zr$ sb{1-x}$, 0.25 $ le$ x $ le$ 0.86, were obtained with an accuracy of 1-4%. Accurate partial structure factors of Ni$ sb{0.33}$Zr$ sb{0.67}$ and Ni$ sb{0.67}$Zr$ sb{0.33}$ were obtained using x-ray and neutron diffraction while those of Ni$ sb{0.33}$Zr$ sb{0.67}$ were also obtained independently using isomorphous substitution. The results confirmed the reliability of the isomorphous substitution method for Ni-Zr glasses. We have found a strong correlation between the local atomic structure and the electron transport properties of Ni-Zr glasses. No structural difference between melt-spun and sputtered Ni-Zr glasses was found. Our results show that the Faber-Ziman partial structure factors of Ni-Zr glasses is strongly composition dependent. The local topological order in amorphous Ni$ sb{0.33}$Zr$ sb{0.67}$ is found to be quite similar to that in the BCT NiZr$ sb2$ compound whereas a discrepancy in the structure is found between amorphous Ni$ sb{0.67}$Zr$ sb{0.33}$ and the FCC Ni$ sb2$Zr compound. Our results have also shown that the Ni-Zr glasses are an almost random mixture of Ni and Zr atoms and that there is no correlation between the pre-peak in the neutron structure factor and the chemical short-range order in the metallic glass.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.41212 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Xu, Yan, 1963 Jan. 31- |
| Contributors | Muir, W. B. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001357042, proquestno: NN91683, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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