Top 3 Milestones in Metallic Glass Discovery

The journey of metallic glass discovery has been marked by significant breakthroughs, from initial rapid quenching techniques to the development of bulk metallic glasses and novel predictive indicators.

The top 3

  1. First Amorphous Metal (Au-Si Alloy): The first true metallic glass, an Au-Si alloy (Au75Si25 or Au80Si20), was produced in 1960 at Caltech by Pol Duwez and his team, using extremely rapid cooling rates exceeding one million degrees Kelvin per second.
  2. Development of Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs): The 1990s saw the development of Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs), multi-component alloys that can form amorphous structures at much lower cooling rates, enabling the creation of thicker, more practical metallic glass components.
  3. New Predictive Indicators for Discovery: Recent advancements include a new electrical resistivity-based indicator that can rapidly screen alloy compositions for high glass-forming ability, accelerating discovery by hundreds of times compared to traditional methods.

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