Crystallization in Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk metallic glass under pressure

Abstract

The effect of pressure on the crystallization behavior of the bulk metallic glass-forming Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 alloy with a wide supercooled liquid region has been investigated by in situ high-pressure and high-temperature x-ray powder diffraction measurements using synchrotron radiation. In the pressure range from 0 to 3 GPa, the crystallization temperature increases with pressure having a slope of 19 K/GPa, which can be explained by the suppression of atomic mobility. This observation is opposite to the results of W.H. Wang, D.W. He, D.Q. Zhao, and Y.S. Yao [Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 2770 (1999)], reporting a decrease of the crystallization temperature under pressure in a pressure range of 0–6 GPa for the bulk glass Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni9Be22.5C1 alloy. Compressibility with a volume reduction of approximately 22% at room temperature does not induce crystallization in the Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk glass alloy. This indicates that the densification effect induced by pressure in the pressure range investigated plays a minor role in the crystallization behavior of this bulk glass alloy. The different crystallization behavior of the carbon-free and the carbon-containing glassy alloys has been critically assessed.