The liquid structure of the Cu70Ni30 alloy has been investigated using a θ-θ high-temperature x-ray diffractometer.At all temperatures above its liquidus,a distinct pre-peak has been found around a scattering vector magnitude of 13.5nm^-1.The height of the pre-peak decreases gradually with increasing temperature but it clearly exists up to a temperature of 1400℃.This behaviour indicates that stable medium-range order atomic clusters exist in the melt.It is concluded that the short-range order atomic clusters of the liquid Cu70Ni30 alloy mainly consist of Cu atoms with centred Ni atoms.The appearance of the pre-peak in the structure factor of the liquid Cu70Ni30 alloy is caused by the interaction between centred Ni atoms locating in the neighbouring atomic clusters.
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