A novel medium-range structure in Zr80Pt20 metallic glass

What determines the glass forming ability (GFA) remains one of the major unsolved problems in materials science. Despite extensive research attempting to resolve it from the perspective of short range order, the medium range order (MRO) structures are also thought to play an important role in the GFA. In this paper, the MRO of Zr80Pt20 metallic glass (MG) is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. We find a novel MRO structure, in which the icosahedral clusters packed in the Bergman method, exists in the glass. This MRO cluster, with the size of 1.2–1.4 nm and high degree of five-symmetry order, will contribute to the high GFA of Zr80Pt20 MG.