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Atom Probe Analysis of a Zr-based Bulk Metallic Glass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2021

Huma Bilal Open the ORCID record for Huma Bilal [Opens in a new window] ,
Keita Nomoto Open the ORCID record for Keita Nomoto [Opens in a new window] ,
Bernd Gludovatz Open the ORCID record for Bernd Gludovatz [Opens in a new window] ,
Jamie J. Kruzic Open the ORCID record for Jamie J. Kruzic [Opens in a new window] ,
Anna V. Ceguerra Open the ORCID record for Anna V. Ceguerra [Opens in a new window]  and
Simon P. Ringer Open the ORCID record for Simon P. Ringer [Opens in a new window]
Huma Bilal
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Keita Nomoto
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Bernd Gludovatz
Affiliation:
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Jamie J. Kruzic
Affiliation:
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Anna V. Ceguerra
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Simon P. Ringer*
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Simon P. Ringer, E-mail: simon.ringer@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

Zr-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are amorphous alloys that can exhibit excellent mechanical properties, including high yield strength and fracture toughness. These properties are linked to local microstructural heterogeneities. Whether via microscopy-based techniques, synchrotron techniques, or calorimetric approaches, the amorphous structure of BMGs makes the characterisation of the details of these local structural and chemical heterogeneities extremely challenging. Our focus here is on atom probe tomography (APT), where considerable uncertainty remains in terms of how and when to apply this otherwise powerful technique to amorphous materials. This work reports a systematic evaluation of the experimental parameter space. We report results of BMG composition acquired against various APT operating parameters for Zr63.96Cu13.36Ni10.29Al11.04Nb1.25 (at. %). We demonstrate that a customised peak-based ranging approach yields satisfactory compositional accuracy with absolute errors of <1 at. %. Beyond composition, we have discussed the data quality in terms of attributes of the mass spectra: mass resolution, signal-to-thermal tail ratio, and overlapped peak ratio. We also assess the composition of the well-known clustered evaporation effects, common in APT data of BMGs. We conclude that these regions have negligible differences in composition from the surrounding “matrix” or bulk in these alloys.

Keywords

Zr-based bulk metallic glassatom probe tomographyclustered evaporationcompositionrange files
Type
Applications in Alloys
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 1348 - 1358
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America

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Footnotes

†

The primary institution of research was The University of Sydney, Australia.

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