LO in Real Metallic Glasses

The presence of one or several types of LO for the dominating number of atoms is, essentially, a sufficient condition for the existence of a polycluster structure. Therefore, the experimental data on LO in real metallic glasses becomes important. 

41-43] we find reports of the experimental investigations of partial distribution functions of atoms in amorphous alloys. The strong LO is discovered in the alloys of the metal-metalloid and metal-metal types. The compositional order is closely (but not always unambiguously) connected with the topological order, so that the presence of the former testifies to the existence of the definite local topological order. 

By studying the Mossbauer spectra and the nuclear magnetic resonance of a series of amorphous alloys, it was established [6.44] that their LO differs slightly from that in crystals. 

As indirect evidence of the presence of perfect LO in amorphous Fe-B and Pd-Si alloys, there serve the data on the threshold energy of defect formation under electron irradiation at low temperatures. Distinct thresholds of defect formation appear to exist, which are very close to the thresholds of Frenkel pairs formation in corresponding crystals [6.45,46]. 

The data on photoemission from some metallic glasses may be satisfactorily explained on the basis of the assumption of a perfect LO order [6.47]. 

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