Sm-based Sm-Al-Ni ternary bulk metallic glasses

The Sm-based Sm-Al-Ni glass-forming system was investigated using our e/a- and cluster-related criteria. Three bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) Sm54Al23Ni23, Sm56Al22Ni22, and Sm58Al21Ni21 were obtained by suction casting into rods with a diameter of 3 mm. All of them shared a constant e/a = 1.5 and fell along the e/a-constant composition line in the ternary composition chart. The Sm54Al23Ni23 BMG exhibiting the largest T-rg was located at the intersection point of the e/a-constant line and the Sm7Ni3-Al cluster line, with thermodynamic parameters of T,, = 548 K at a heating rate of 20 K/min, T-g/T-m = 0.634, and T-g/T-1 = 0.615. The Sm7Ni3 cluster was a capped trigonal prism derived from the SmNi phase.