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Nature Materials 4, 2–3 (1 January 2005) | doi:10.1038/nmat1289

Solving the puzzle of eutectic compositions with 'Miracle glasses'

A. R. Yavari

To the editor — The structural model for metallic glasses published in the October issue of Nature Materials may account for the observed compositions of binary Ax By eutectics, which occur most frequently at integer values of x and y. In 1935, D. Stockdale suggested that, in binary alloy phase diagrams, the compositions of eutectic points should correspond with simple whole-number ratios of the two kinds of atoms A (solvent > 50 at.%) and B (solute < 50 at.