Amorphization of a Ni/Zr bilayer upon isothermal annealing was observed by a molecular-dynamics simulation using an n-body potential. The disordering process was found to initiate and extend from a preset disordered interfacial layer through atomic diffusion and alloying between Ni and Zr layers. Furthermore, it was clearly shown by the simulation that the growing process of amorphous phase obeyed t1/2 kinetics, featuring a typical diffusion-limited growth with asymmetrical speeds in two opposite directions. All of the results suggested that the observed amorphization was a result of diffusion-limited-reaction.

Solid-State Amorphization of Ni/Zr Bilayer Through Diffusion-Limited-Reaction Observed by Molecular-Dynamics Simulation. Lai, W.S., Liu, B.X.: Computational Materials Science, 1999, 14[1-4], 163-8