Molecular dynamics computation of clusters in liquid Fe–Al alloy

By means of constant pressure molecular dynamics (MD) simulation technique, a series of simulations of the Fe₅₀Al₅₀ alloy have been carried out. The atoms interact via semi-empirical n-body noncentral potential. The pair correlation functions and the pair analysis technique is applied to reveal the cluster evolution in the process of quick solidification. By using the bond orientation order parameters, we have measured both local and extended orientation symmetries for computer-generated models of dense liquid and glass. A lot of polyhedra in liquid system, for example, icosahedra, are also obtained. In order to test the reliance of the computation results, corresponding X-ray diffraction experiments have been performed on the material.