Effects of sub-Tg annealing on Cu64.5Zr35.5 glasses: A molecular dynamics study

Creating metallic glasses by cooling liquid melts in molecular dynamics simulations faces a well-known challenge that the cooling rate is too fast compared with experiments. Taking the prototypical Cu64.5Zr35.5 glasses as an example, we propose an efficient cooling strategy in which most of the computer time is spent on a prolonged isothermal process slightly below the glass-transition temperature, Tg. The glassy sample prepared in this way demonstrates significant energetic stability, slow dynamics, and well-developed short-range icosahedral order. By conventional uniform cooling, similar properties can only be obtained using a cooling rate more than 15 times slower.