Cooling Rate Dependence of Structural Order and Energy Landscape in Zr55Cu35Al10 Glass

Classical molecular dynamics simulation has been widely used to study the rapid cooling process of preparing amorphous alloys. However, the simulated cooling rate is several orders of magnitude higher than the experimental cooling rate. In this paper, Zr₅₅Cu₃₅Al₁₀ alloy was taken as an example. It is found that adding isothermal annealing at a temperature slightly lower than T_g and prolonging isothermal annealing time could effectively reduce the cooling rate. The glassy sample prepared in this way demonstrates significant energetic stability and well-developed short-range and medium-range order.