Pressure-induced polyamorphism in lanthanide-solute metallic glasses

The electronic structure inheritance of lanthanide-solvent atoms in lanthanide-based metallic glasses has been proposed. Is a polyamorphism possible in lanthanide-solute metallic glasses? So far, polyamorphic phase transitions in metallic glass containing lanthanide have been observed only in lanthanide-solvent metallic glasses. Here, a pressure-induced transition between two distinct amorphous states, accompanied by a 7% volume collapse at ambient pressure, was observed in La_43.4Pr_18.6Al₁₄Cu₂₄ metallic glass, with low lanthanide content, by using in situ X-ray total scattering method. The transformation also indicated by changes in short range and medium range order. Thus, it is proposed that the lanthanide-solute metallic glasses also inherit 4f electronic transition from pure lanthanide element in polyamorphic transition. This discovery offers a supplement to research on lanthanide-based metallic glasses, which further provides a new perspective of the polyamorphic transformation in metallic glasses containing lanthanide element.