Abstract
A simple and possible structural model of amorphous metals based on the concept of crystalline embryos is proposed. The quasi-crystalline clusters are supposed to exist in the liquid state, be enhanced during supercooling, and be frozen as the crystalline embryos in the amorphous state by rapid quenching. A model assembly of atoms containing the crystalline embryos and the boundary regions is constructed, and the pair correlation function and the interference function are calculated. The interference function of the b.c.c. embryo model is in good agreement with experimental ones. It is concluded that the structure of the boundary connecting the embryos plays an essential role as well as the ordered part in the embryos in the diffraction phenomena of the amorphous structures. The importance of chemical clusters and metalloid atoms is also suggested and discussed.