Unveiling inherent features of medium-range connections between atomic clusters in Fe-Ni amorphous alloys

Molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to explore the inherent connection features between the atomic clusters of Fe-Ni amorphous alloys in medium range. Voronoi polyhedron analysis shows that there are four types of short-range clusters in the Fe-Ni amorphous alloys. The analysis of the connection between these clusters reveals that the closer the structural properties of clusters, the stronger the connection tendency between them, and the connection modes between clusters are influenced by their types. Finally, we clarify the mechanism for the effect of two-connected clusters on the connection modes between them and their surrounding clusters, i.e., as the number of the clusters surrounding two-connected clusters increases, the fraction of the number of their surrounding clusters first increases and then decreases, and the more the atoms shared in two-connected clusters, the more the clusters simultaneously connecting with them. We believe that these are the inherent connection features of medium-range structures in Fe-Ni amorphous alloys, which can also be extended to other amorphous alloys.