Microstructural changes induced by thermal treatment in Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni8Si1 metallic glass

• Published in: Materials science & engineering. A, Structural materials : properties, microstructure and processing Vol. 498; no. 1-2; pp. 335 - 340
• Main Authors: BEDNARCIK, J, VENKATARAMAN, S, KHVOSTIKOVA, O, FRANZ, H, SORDELET, D. J, ECKERT, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier 20.12.2008
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Disordered solids; Exact sciences and technology; Glasses; Physics; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Differential scanning calorimetry; Nickel alloys; Structure factors; Phase transformations; Crystallization; Gaussian distribution; Glass structure; XRD; Structure relaxation; Heat treatments; Titanium alloys; Metallic glasses; Impurities; DSC; Copper alloys; Short-range order; Pair distribution function; Synchrotron light; Nanocrystal; Synchrotron radiation; Metallic glass; Transition element alloys; Thermal treatment
• ISSN: 0921-5093; 1873-4936
• DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2008.08.016

The influence of thermal treatment on structural changes in the Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni8Si1 metallic glass has been monitored using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Additionally, the short-range order structure has been investigated by XRD using synchrotron radiation. The changes observed in the calorimetric behaviour cannot be quantified using conventional XRD. Small changes are, however, visible in the total structure factor S (Q) primarily in terms of amplitude of the oscillations, which tend to increase with increasing thermal treatment temperature. Real-space analysis of the pair distribution function suggests that the first coordination shell consists of three peaks, which can be modelled using Gaussian distributions. Furthermore, the synchrotron data also reveal changes in the local structure that occur during structural relaxation and early formation of nanocrystals at temperatures close to the experimentally determined crystallization temperature.