THERMAL-BEHAVIOR OF ZR-CU METALLIC GLASSES

ZrCu metallic glasses containing between 50 and 66.5% copper were prepared in an arc furnace quenching unit. Scanning calorimetry was used to characterize the glass transition temperature Tg, the crystallization temperature Tc and the heat of crystallization ΔHc. Tg and Tc were found to increase monotonically with increasing copper content over the composition range studied while Δc decreased linearly with increasing copper content; Tc - Tg remained approximately constant. An exothermic relaxation effect, qualitatively similar to that previously reported for metal-metalloid glasses, was observed over a temperature range of about 100 K immediately preceding Tg. © 1979.