High-energy X-ray diffraction study of liquid structure of metallic glass-forming Zr ₇₀Cu ₃₀ alloy

High-energy X-ray diffraction experiments were performed for a metallic glass-forming Zr ₇₀Cu ₃₀ alloy in the liquid state at a high temperature. Conical nozzle levitation was applied as a containerless method of obtaining accurate structure information of a highly reactive melt. The total structure factor obtained for the liquid alloy above its melting point shows a particular shoulder on the second peak, which is probably an indication of local icosahedral short-range ordering typically observed in deeply undercooled liquids. This implies that short-range ordered clusters already exist even in the equilibrium liquid state of Zr-based metallic glass-forming alloys.