Applications of electron reduced density function analysis to the study of amorphous materials: An example of Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10.0 and Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 metallic glasses

Analysis of the reduced density functions from electron diffraction data and density functional theory calculations for the two metallic glasses with high plasticity with the compositions Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10.0 and Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 has indicated that the structures are essentially randomly packed with a small degree of local ordering. These structural features may be important in understanding the high plasticity of the glasses.