Abstract The formation mechanism of glass at the atomic scale has been under debate over centuries. In this work, we demonstrate that hybridization, as manifested by Mott’s pseudogap, has a strong influence on the bond length as well as atomic packing, which can potentially tailor the formation of metallic glasses at microscopic time and length scales. A p–d orbital hybridization between the post-transition metal Al and the transition metal was shown by the 27 Al isotropic shifts and the spin–lattice relaxation time of Zr–Co–Al alloys using nuclear magnetic resonance. These bonds lead to a charge transfer between the specific atomic pairs and the shrinkage of interatomic distances. Such chemical bonding favors the formation of metallic glasses by introducing a string-like structure and further stabilizes metallic glasses via a reduction in the density of states at the Fermi level. Our work has implications for understanding the glass formation mechanism at the electronic level and may open up new possibilities on the design of glass from the perspective of atomic interactions.

中文翻译：

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杂化对金属玻璃形成和设计的影响

摘要 几个世纪以来，原子尺度上玻璃的形成机制一直存在争议。在这项工作中，我们证明了莫特赝隙所表明的杂化对键长和原子堆积有很大的影响，这可能会在微观时间和长度尺度上调整金属玻璃的形成。使用核磁共振的 27 Al 各向同性位移和 Zr-Co-Al 合金的自旋-晶格弛豫时间显示了过渡金属 Al 和过渡金属之间的 p-d 轨道杂化。这些键导致特定原子对之间的电荷转移和原子间距离的缩小。这种化学键合通过引入线状结构有利于金属玻璃的形成，并通过降低费米能级的态密度进一步稳定金属玻璃。我们的工作对理解电子水平的玻璃形成机制具有重要意义，并可能从原子相互作用的角度为玻璃设计开辟新的可能性。