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The surface growth mode can induce the anomalous compressive strain in thicker VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial films, which can't be explained by conventional epitaxial lattice-mismatch. Strain may be an effective tool for manipulating MIT of the VO2 films.

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Vanadium dioxide (VO2) with reversible metal–insulator transition (MIT) is one of the most promising energy-efficient materials. Especially for VO2-based smart windows, the visible transmittance and solar modulation ability are the most critical parameters. However, VO2 thin films that are directly deposited onto glass substrates are of poor crystallinity and MIT performance, limiting the practical applications of VO2/glass heterostructures. In this paper, a buffer layer of Cu50Zr50 was introduced to build a novel Zr-based thin film metallic glass (VO2/Cu50Zr50/glass) with multilayer structures for thermochromic applications. It is observed that the insertion of a Cu50Zr50 buffer layer with appropriate thickness results in a clear enhancement of crystalline quality and MIT performance in the VO2/Cu50Zr50/glass thin films, compared with the single-layer VO2/glass thin films. Moreover, the VO2/Cu50Zr50/glass bi-layer films exhibit better optical performance with enhanced solar modulation ability (ΔTsol = 14.3%) and a high visible transmittance (Tvis = 52.3%), which represents a good balance between ΔTsol and Tvis for smart window applications.

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The fluidity and filling ability of glass-forming Zr-based alloy melt in copper mould were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The major factors which affected the flowing behavior of the metallic melt in the mold were determined, which provides the foundation for overcoming the contradiction between the filling and formation of amorphous alloy during the rapid cooling process of the metallic melts. The casting factors to prepare a metallic ring were discussed and selected. As a result, a Zr-based bulk metallic glass ring was prepared successfully.Zr-based bulk metallic glass, casting, fluidity, moldingThe earliest amorphous alloy was discovered in the 1960s by quenching Ag 80 Si 20 melt [1] . Due to the limitation of the cooling rate, amorphous alloys can only be made in the form of ribbons and powders which limit the application severely in the earlier years. Since the discovery of La-based and Zr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) systems [2][3][4][5] by Inoue and Johnson respectively, the limitation of cooling rate was broken up. Later, the Pb 40 Cu 30 Ni 10 P 20 bulk amorphous alloy with a thickness of 72 mm was made by replacing Ni in Pb 40 Ni 40 P 20 by 30% Cu in Inoue's group [6] . The critical cooling rate was measured to be only about 0.33 K/s by Johnson's group [7] . The above mentioned research tremendously contributed to the preparation of BMGs in a large size.Due to the special structure of BMGs, BMGs have different properties from conventional crystalline alloys, such as high strength, high hardness, high elastic limitation and high fracture toughness, and superplasticity in a supercooled liquid region. Meanwhile, BMGs also have other favorable properties such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, radialization resistance and antioxidation. These properties attract extensive attention in the metallic materials field [8][9][10] . In

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