Changes in short-range order of Zr55Cu30Al10Ni5 and Zr55Cu20Al10Ni10Ti5 BMGs upon annealing

The need for a fundamental understanding of the flow in metallic glasses has motivated a variety of experimental investigations involving temperature and strain-rate sensitivity tests and assessing the dependence of flow on microstructure and heat treatment. In order to elucidate the deformation mechanism and to increase the ductility of BMGs, the local variations in structure and/or composition play an important role. Such kind of structural modification can be induced by annealing at temperatures slightly below the glass transition temperature T-g. The present work deals with two well-known Zr-based BMGs: Zr55Cu30Al10Ni5 and Zr55Cu20Al10Ni10Ti5. Both BMGs show increased ductility after annealing, but the microstructural modifications are different. (c) 2010 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.