Liquid-liquid transition and inherited signatures in Zr-Cu-Ni-Al metallic glasses.

• Apparent liquid-liquid transition (LLT) of several Zr-Cu-Ni-Al melts have been discovered at about 300 K above the liquidus temperature. • Two different glasses are obtained by regulating LLT in these alloys, manifesting that LLT comes from the competition between two types of atomic clusters. • LLT reconstructs the atomic structure at short-range order which was seldom verified in previous work. Up to now, the research of liquid-liquid transition (LLT) has significantly improved the understanding of its liquid structure and evolution, which is crucial to addressing the longstanding problem with glass formation. However, it remains unclear how LLT affects the vitrification and structures of glasses, due to the challenge in experimentally exploring LLT in high-temperature melt well above the liquidus temperature. In the present study, an experiment is conducted to observe LLT in three Zr-Cu-Ni-Al melts at around 1450 K from both dynamic and thermodynamic perspectives. It is discovered that superheated fragility is closely associated with glass-forming ability. By controlling the melt temperature, two types of metallic glasses are obtained, showing difference in crystallization behaviors, which is attributed to the competition between crystal-like clusters and icosahedral-like clusters. Prior to the LLT, the formation of crystal-like clusters is dominant. Afterwards, the LLT promoted formation of icosahedral-like clusters becomes dominant. Due to the inherited signatures in glass, LLT is manifested by the changes in both medium-range order structure and short-range order structure. This study further reveals the pattern of microstructural evolution accompanied by LLT in high-temperature multi-component melts, which is conducive to the control on structure and properties of glasses from liquids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]