Evidence for cooling-rate-dependent icosahedral short-range order in a Cu-Zr-Al metallic glass

X-ray diffraction and analysis of computer-simulated models are combined to study the dependence of presumed icosahedral order in a Cu-Zr-Al glass on the cooling rate at which the glasses are prepared. Significant correlations between the fraction of icosahedral clusters and the applied cooling rate are reflected by changes of the total structure factor for both the simulated and the experimentally prepared systems.