STRUCTURAL, ELECTRONIC, AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF METALLIC GLASSES

This paper reviews recent progress in the theory of the atomic, electronic, and magnetic structure of glassy alloys containing transition metals (TM). Realistic structural models are obtained using molecular-dynamic simulations based on pair interatomic forces derived from a hybridized nearly-free-electron - tight-binding-bond method. This approach describes quantitatively compositional trends in chemical and topological short-range order in agreement with diffraction experiments. The electronic and magnetic structure is studied by means of a spin-polarized linear-muffin-tin-orbital supercell method. The resulting different magnetic orders (inhomogeneous ferro- and ferri-magnets, spin-glasses) are related to the calculated local densities of states. A proportionality has been found between local magnetic moments and local exchange splittings of 3d-TM atoms. In iron-rich TM glasses, the existence of negative iron moments has been explained on the basis of a local-environment effect.