Short-range and medium-range order in liquid Cu-Ni alloy

The liquid structure of the Cu70Ni30 alloy has been investigated using a theta-theta high-temperature x-ray diffractometer. At all temperatures above its liquidus, a distinct pre-peak has been found around a scattering vector magnitude of 13.5nm(-1). The height of the pre-peak decreases gradually with increasing temperature but it clearly exists up to a temperature of 1400degreesC. This behaviour indicates that stable medium-range order atomic clusters exist in the melt. It is concluded that the short-range order atomic clusters of the liquid Cu70Ni30 alloy mainly consist of Cu atoms with centred Ni atoms. The appearance of the pre-peak in the structure factor of the liquid Cu70Ni30 alloy is caused by the interaction between centred Ni atoms locating in the neighbouring atomic clusters.