The effect of compositional changes on the glass forming ability of Mg alloys containing Y was studied. Four rapidly-solidified Mg-alloys were investigated: Mg91Y7.5La1.5, Mg85Y12La3, Mg86Y9.5Cu2.5La2 and Mg82Y11La4Eu3. XRD and DSC spectra revealed that the Mg86Y9.5Cu2.5La2 was the most amorphous out of the investigated alloys. A model based on a spinodal-like decomposition of a supercooled liquid alloy was developed. The model provides qualitative and quantitative explanation for the variation in glass forming ability.

We have previously reported, based on fluctuation electron microscopy (FEM) data, that Zr50Cu45Al5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) contains significant icosahedral and crystal-like medium-range order. Here, we report similar finding for Zr54Cu38Al8 BMG, which is a poorer glass former. Like Zr50Cu45Al5, Zr54Cu38Al8 contains icosahedral and crystal-like structures. In the as-cast state, the crystal-like peak in the FEM data is stronger than icosahedral-like peak. After annealing at 0.83Tg (573 K), the icosahedral-like peak increases, but, unlike Zr50Cu45Al5, the crystal-like peak does not decrease. This tendency toward stronger, more thermally stable crystal-like order may be associated with the poorer glass forming ability of Zr54Cu38Al8.

Different surface patterns with nanometer length-scales were obtained by electrochemical processing of metallic glasses. The wetting behaviour of these surface patterns was studied using sessile drop technique with distilled water droplet. It is demonstrated that the hydrophilic-hydrophobic nature of the metallic glass surface can be controlled through nano topography. The contact angle was found to increase from 70° for the flat metallic glass surface to 112° for the nano-dendritic structure. Atomic force microscopy was utilized to explain the difference in contact angle in term of the surface roughness for different nano-textures.

We have fabricated by pulse laser deposition very thin (∼5-7 nm) and thick (∼27-408 nm) films of composition Fe66B24Nb4Ni6 on silicon and quartz substrates respectively, and studied their magnetic and magneto-optic properties at room temperature. We find that the thicker films on silicon can be tuned by appropriate thermal annealing to exploit soft magnetic characteristics with low HC, and high MS values. The magnetic hysteretic loops of the as-deposited thicker films on silicon substrates show two interesting characteristics: 1) increase in the coercivity with the film thickness and 2) the onset of a two stage process during the approach to magnetic saturation. The initial in-plane characteristic of the hysteresis loop is followed by a linear anisotropic behavior between remanence and saturation- that changes into square soft-magnetic loops on decreasing the film thickness. By suitable annealing the intrinsic strain disappears at relatively low temperatures (≤200 oC); the thicker films can be tailored to exhibit a simple soft-magnetic square loop with low HC. The ∼5-7 nm films deposited on glass are transparent and have been investigated for their magneto-optic properties using Faraday rotation (FR) measurement technique. Very high values of FR in the range 4-20 deg/µm almost linearly dependent on the wavelength of light in the range 405-611 nm are observed. The observed high values of Faraday rotation over a wide range of wavelength of light are useful for the applications as magneto-optic sensors in the UV to visible range.