Interatomic potential controlled glass forming processes of binary CuZr melts

It has been a long-sought goal to explore the nature of amorphous formation. Investigate the role of interatomic potential can be a fascinating method to study this myth from bottom up. In this work, molecular dynamics is used to systematically study the glass forming processes of binary CuZr melts on both structural and dynamical evolutions. The strong repulsion between Cu-Cu and the weak repulsion between Zr-Zr is found to determine the structural arrangement, and then affect the type, number and spatial correlation of clusters. The difference of melt dynamics is controlled by both the steep repulsion and the anharmonic attraction of potential. The increase of the anharmonic attraction in melts can also lead to a higher shear transformation zone density in the glass. Our findings provide deeper insights into the understanding of glass-forming processes and its connection to glassy performance controlled by interatomic potential.