EFFECT OF IMPURITY MASS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF RAPIDLY QUENCHED ALUMINUM

The microstructure of amorphous Al is investigated by molecular dynami cs simulation. An unexpected mass effect caused by impurities is obser ved, which indicated the importance of the mass differences of compone nts in generating the actual structure. Impurities with considerably l ower masses than Al give amorphous microstructures, while much larger masses generate quasi-crystalline-like microstructures in the alloy. B oth the Voronoi analysis and the pair correlation function are studied to clarify this effect.