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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
SCF-Xα-SW calculations have been performed on the glass forming crystal of Ni2B. The resulting molecular orbital topology near the fermi level is similar to that previously obtained by SCF-Xα-SW calculation on the glass forming crystals of Pd-Si and Cu-Zr. These similarties, it is conjectured, indicate melting is an electronically driven phase transition and that liquid and glass structures are more the result of electronic than kinetic factors. It is shown that the molecular orbital model of melting in transition metals will generate structures similar to those resulting from the dense random packing of hard spheres method, and the molecualr orbital mechanism admits, in a qualitative way, the explanation of a broad range of liquid and glass properties.