The glass forming ability (GFA) of metallic glasses (MGs) is quantified by the critical cooling rate (R C). Despite its key role in MG research, experimental challenges have limited measured R C to a minute fraction of known glass formers. We present a combinatorial approach to directly measure R C for large compositional ranges. This is realized through the use of compositionally-graded alloy libraries, which were photo-thermally heated by scanning laser spike annealing of an absorbing layer, then melted and cooled at various rates. Coupled with X-ray diffraction mapping, GFA is determined from direct R C measurements. We exemplify this technique for the Au-Cu-Si system, where we identify Au56Cu27Si17 as the alloy with the highest GFA. In general, this method enables measurements of R C over large compositional areas, which is powerful for materials discovery and, when correlating with chemistry and other properties, for a deeper understanding of MG formation.

Modulating energy states of metallic glasses (MGs) is significant in understanding the nature of glasses and controlling their properties. In this study, we show that high stored energy can be achieved and preserved in bulk MGs by high pressure (HP) annealing, which is a controllable method to continuously alter the energy states of MGs. Contrary to the decrease in enthalpy by conventional annealing at ambient pressure, high stored energy can occur and be enhanced by increasing both annealing temperature and pressure. By using double aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, it is revealed that the preserved high energy, which is attributed to the coupling effect of high pressure and high temperature, originates from the microstructural change that involves “negative flow units” with a higher atomic packing density compared to that of the elastic matrix of MGs. The results demonstrate that HP-annealing is an effective way to activate MGs into higher energy states, and it may assist in understanding the microstructural origin of high energy states in MGs.

Thermocapillary dewetting of liquids and molten films has recently emerged as a viable alternative to conventional microprocessing methods. As this thermal gradient-induced mechanism is universal, it can be applied to any material. This work explores the sequential dewetting of materials with varying melting points, including polymers and metals, to create aligned morphologies. The variation in melting point allows for the dewetting of single layers at a time or mobility-limited simultaneous dewetting. As a result, a variety of multimaterial structures can be produced with built-in alignment, such as arrays of concentric circles, lines with periodic segmentation, or islands on holes. This approach employs photothermal methods to induce the necessary thermal gradient, manipulating several variables in order to influence the consequent structures. Adjusting laser power and light intensity allows for the control of temperature for selective dewetting of films; altering beam size and exposure time affects the extent of dewetting in terms of diameter size; overlap effects and simultaneous dewetting can result in complex architectures. This controlled writing of patterns also presents a technique to create both masks at low temperatures for conductive multilayers as well as templates for electrospray deposition.