X-Ray Emission and Absorption Spectroscopy with Binary Amorphous Alloys from the B-Co-, B-Ni-, Co-P-, Co-Ti-, Cu-Mg-, Cu-Ti-, Mg-Zn-, Ni-P-, and Ni-Ti-Systems

X-ray emission and absorption spectroscopy has been used to determine the partial density of occupied and unoccupied states in various metallic glasses. The X-ray emission spectra also indicate a possible electronic charge transfer between the alloyed atoms. The experiments were done by means of an electron microprobe. Amorphous Mg2Cu was prepared by ionic sputtering, the glasses of the Mg-Cu-, Mg-Zn-, Cu-Ti-, Co-Ti-, Co-B-, Co-P-, Ni-Ti-, Ni-B-, and Ni-Psystems by the melt-spinning method. From the measurements it is concluded that the amorphous phase is stabilized by compound formation. A combination with results of X-ray diffraction measurements on amorphous Mg2Cu indicates that the glassy structures should be favoured by a correlation between the atoms of higher electronegativity. The shape of the density of unoccupied states vs. energy curve shows that the local symmetry around the Zn- and Cu-atoms in the amorphous phases differs from that in the corresponding crystalline phases. For the transition-metalloid glasses evidence for a fcc-like local short range order is found.