Determination of critical cooling rates in metallic glass forming alloy libraries through laser spike annealing

The glass forming ability (GFA) of metallic glasses (MGs) is quantified by the critical cooling rate (RC). Despite its key role in MG research, experimental challenges have limited measured RC to a minute fraction of known glass formers. We present a combinatorial approach to directly measure RC for large compositional ranges. This is realized through the use of compositionally-graded alloy libraries, which were photo-thermally heated by scanning laser spike annealing of an absorbing layer, then melted and cooled at various rates. Coupled with X-ray diffraction mapping, GFA is determined from direct RC measurements. We exemplify this technique for the Au-Cu-Si system, where we identify Au56Cu27Si17 as the alloy with the highest GFA. In general, this method enables measurements of RC over large compositional areas, which is powerful for materials discovery and, when correlating with chemistry and other properties, for a deeper understanding of MG formation.