The atomic-scale structure of several transition metal-based metallic glasses has been investigated by X-ray diffraction techniques. Current dense random packing models have been found to have only a superficial resemblance to the structure of real amorphous metallic alloys, and a theoretical density for amorphous transition metals has been obtained which might be used as a filter for more realistic single component models in the future. The partial pair distribution functions for individual pairs of atomic species have been obtained for glassy alloys of lanthanum with aluminum, gallium and gold through the use of isomorphous alloys. These systems have been demonstrated to be chemically ordered and the short range order of these alloys has been shown to be quite different from that of typical amorphous transition metal-metalloid alloys.
