Local Symmetry around the Glass-Former Sites in Amorphous Metallic Alloys through Electric Quadrupole Effects

Abstract

Through NMR investigation of quadrupolar effects in some amorphous alloys (${\mathrm{La}}_{75}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{25}$, ${\mathrm{Mo}}_{70}$${\mathrm{B}}_{30}$, ${\mathrm{Mo}}_{48}$${\mathrm{Ru}}_{32}$${\mathrm{B}}_{20}$, ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{78}$${\mathrm{P}}_{14}$${\mathrm{B}}_{8}$) the local symmetry is determined around the $s\ensuremath{-}p$ element sites. A comparison with the corresponding crystalline compounds (${\mathrm{La}}_{3}$Ga, ${\mathrm{Mo}}_{2}$B, ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{3}$B) which have typically different crystal structures (cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, respectively) gives conclusive evidence that the amorphous structure retains to a significant extent the local symmetry of the crystalline counterpart.