A partial structure factor investigation of the bulk metallic glass Zr63Ni25Al12 as studied by using a combination of anomalous X-ray scattering and reverse Monte Carlo modeling

Anomalous X-ray scattering experiments were performed on Zr63Ni25Al12 bulk metallic glass. The results were analyzed using reverse Monte Carlo modeling to obtain local- and intermediate-range atomic configurations of this good metallic glass former. Although the Al-related partial information is not reliable due to the small values of their weighting factors in X-ray scattering, good partial information could be obtained from a reverse Monte Carlo analysis. The obtained structural information is given by parameters such as bond angle distributions, bond orientation order parameters, the Warren–Cowley order parameters, and Voronoi polyhedra. Results are compared to the previous results from Fukunaga et al. using X-ray and neutron total scattering.