  Understanding the cavity formation and cavity growth mechanisms in solids has
fundamental and applied importance for the correct determination of their
exploitation capabilities and mechanical characteristics. In this work, we
present the molecular dynamics simulation results for the process of
homogeneous formation of nanosized cavities in a single-component amorphous
metallic alloy. To identify cavities of various shapes and sizes, an original
method has been developed, which is based on filling cavities by virtual
particles (balls) of the same diameter. By means of the mean first-passage time
analysis, it was shown that the cavity formation in an amorphous metallic melt
is the activation-type process. This process can be described in terms of the
classical nucleation theory, which is usually applied to the case of first
order phase transitions. Activation energy, critical size and nucleation rate
of cavities are calculated, the values of which are comparable with those for
the case of crystal nucleation in amorphous systems.
