Description of chemical ordering in amorphous alloys

Partial coordination numbers $\text{Z}{}_{\mathrm{ij}}{}^1$ for a chemically disordered binary amorphous alloy A_XAB_XB are obtained in terms of total coordination numbers Z_i and average coordination numbers 〈Z〉 $\text{Z}{}_{\mathrm{ij}}{}^1\text{=x}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{Z}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{Z}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{/〈Z〉}$. Departures from complete chemical disorder are characterized by a short-range order coefficient with η_AB^max=x_BZ_B/x_AZ_A for X_BZ_B<x_AZ_A and η_AB^max=x_AZ_A/x_BZ_B for x_BZ_B>x_AZ_A.For complete chemical disorder ν_AB⁰ = 0; for complete chemical order, i.e. with chemical preference for AB nearest neighbor pairs, ν_AB⁰ = 1. For departures from chemical disorder associated with clustering, i.e. chemical preference against AB nearest neighbor pairs, ν_AB⁰ < 0. Experimental results for several amorphous alloys are used to demonstrate the usefulness of these results. A more precise calculation of η_AB^max is necessary to compare the degree of ordering in the metal-metalloid and metal-metal alloys.