Microscopic real-space approach to the theory of metallic glasses

The electronic and transport properties of three metallic glass systems, a-${\mathrm{Cu}}_{60}$ ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{40}$, a-${\mathrm{Mg}}_{75}$ ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{25}$, and a-Ni, are studied by means of realistic microscopic real-space calculations. At low temperature, the transport properties are contrilled by the magnitude and the shape of the conductivity function ${\sigma }_E$ near the Fermi energy. It is shown that for a stable metallic glass the Fermi energy is quite close to a local minimum in ${\sigma }_E$ and this causes the negative temperature coefficient of resistivity which is purely due to the elastic scattering of the conduction electrons from the disordered atoms.