Relaxation dynamics of Pd-Ni-P metallic glass: decoupling of anelastic and viscous processes

The stress relaxation dynamics of metallic glass Pd40Ni40P20 was studied in both supercooled liquid and glassy states. Time-temperature superposition was found in the metastable liquid, implying an invariant shape of the distribution of times involved in the relaxation. Once in the glass state, the distribution of relaxation times broadens as temperature and fictive temperature decrease, eventually leading to a decoupling of the relaxation in two processes. While the slow one keeps a viscous behavior, the fast one shows an anelastic nature and a time scale similar to that of the collective atomic motion measured by x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). These results suggest that the atomic dynamics of metallic glasses, as determined by XPCS at low temperatures in the glass state, can be related to the rearrangements of particles responsible of the macroscopically reversible anelastic behavior.

Automated summary

The stress relaxation dynamics of metallic glass Pd40Ni40P20 was studied in both supercooled liquid and glassy states. In the metastable liquid, time-temperature superposition was found, while in the glass state, the distribution of relaxation times broadens and eventually leads to a decoupling of the relaxation in two processes. The fast relaxation process in the glass state shows an anelastic nature and a time scale similar to that of the collective atomic motion measured by XPCS. The results suggest a correlation between atomic dynamics in metallic glasses and rearrangements of particles responsible for macroscopically reversible anelastic behavior.