Smoothing metallic glasses without introducing crystallization by gas cluster ion beam

Journal Article · Mon Mar 11 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4794540· OSTI ID:22162778

Shao, Lin; Chen, Di; Myers, Michael; Wang, Jing ^[1]; Tilakaratne, Buddhi; Wijesundera, Dharshana; Chu, Wei-Kan ^[2]; Xie, Guoqiang ^[3]; Zare, Arezoo; Lucca, Don A. ^[4]

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1. Department of Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Program, Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas 77843 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004 (United States)
3. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan)
4. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078 (United States)

We show that 30 keV Ar cluster ion bombardment of Ni{sub 52.5}Nb{sub 10}Zr{sub 15}Ti{sub 15}Pt{sub 7.5} metallic glass (MG) can remove surface mountain-like features and reduce the root mean square surface roughness from 12 nm to 0.7 nm. 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.

• OSTI ID: 22162778
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2013 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AMORPHOUS STATE
ARGON IONS
CRYSTALLIZATION
DAMAGE
ION BEAMS
IRRADIATION
KEV RANGE 10-100
METALLIC GLASSES
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
NICKEL ALLOYS
NIOBIUM ALLOYS
PLATINUM ALLOYS
ROUGHNESS
SIMULATION
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TITANIUM ALLOYS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS