Neutron diffraction study in amorphous Ni30Ta70 alloy powders by mechanical alloying

A mixture of elemental Ni and Ta powders with an atomic ratio of 3:7 was subjected to mechanical alloying (MA). An amorphous Ni30Ta70 alloy was formed after 80 hrs of milling, the amorphization by rapid quenching technique of which has not been reported. The atomic structural changes were observed by neutron diffraction in the amorphization process during MA. The radial distribution function RDF(r) shows that peaks of fcc-Ni and bcc-Ta crystal broaden first and gradually approach those characteristic of an amorphous phase with increasing MA time. A local atomic environment around Ni and Ta atoms was studied by analyzing the first peak in the total pair distribution function g(r) after the completion of amorphization. We reach our conclusion from this analysis that the amorphization in the Ni30Ta70 alloy takes place by the penetration of smaller Ni atoms into the bcc-Ta lattice.