Excess entropy of metallic glasses and its relation to the glass-forming ability of maternal melts

The excess entropy $\Delta S$ with respect to the maternal crystal state has been determined from calorimetric data for 30 metallic glasses. It has been shown that the excess entropy in the supercooled liquid state $\Delta S_{sql}$ is a universal characteristic of a glass independent of its thermal treatment. Six parameters often used to estimate the glass-forming ability of supercooled melts have been calculated for the same metallic glasses. It has been shown that all six parameters increase with $\Delta S_{sql}$ and the glass-forming ability of supercooled melts increases with their structural disorder. A possible mechanism to implement this relation has been discussed.