Correlation of the glass formation and phase selection of the Mg-Cu-Gd bulk metallic glass forming alloys

Abstract The glass formation and microstructure evolution of Mg61Cu28Gd11 and alloys laying on the line linking this composition to pure magnesium, i.e. alloys with fixed Cu:Gd ratio but increasing Mg content were systematically studied. A schematic phase diagram with three ternary phase regions was built based on the related competitive crystalline phases. Moreover, the results indicate that the alloys located in the Mg 2 Cu-Mg 2 CuGd-Mg 6 CuGd ternary phase region have higher glass forming ability than alloys with increased magnesium content.