Metallic glass formation in the ternary Ni-Nb-Mo system by ion beam mixing

Glass forming ability of the ternary Ni-Nb-Mo system was studied by ion beam mixing of the Ni-Nb-Mo multilayered films.In the experiment,metallic glasses i.e.amorphous alloys were formed in the Ni51Nb19Mo30,Ni52Nb35Mo13,Ni61Nb15Mo24 and Ni72Nb20Mo8 multilayered films,while only solid solutions were obtained in the Ni24Nb29Mo47 and Ni26Nb53Mo21 multilayered films.It turned out that the Ni concentration played a dominating role in affecting the glass-forming ability of the system.Besides,thermodynamic calculations predicted a favored composition region for metallic glass formation,matching well with the observations from ion beam mixing.