Solid-state amorphization of crystalline copper nanolayers embedded in a
Cu64Zr36 metallic glass is studied by molecular dynamics simulations for
different orientations of the crystalline layer. We show that solid-state
amorphization is driven by a reduction of interface energy, which compensates
the bulk excess energy of the amorphous nanolayer with respect to the
crystalline phase up to a critical layer thickness. A simple thermodynamic
model is derived, which describes the simulation results in terms of
orientation-dependent interface energies. Detailed analysis reveals the
structure of the amorphous nanolayer and allows a comparison to a quenched
copper melt, providing further insights into the origin of excess and interface
energy.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figure
