Experimental Investigation on the Thermal Stability of Metallic Glasses

Abstract

Abstract There are many instances in practice of phase changes in which the initial phase e.g. a homogeneous melt is not replaced by one or more thermodynamic stable phases but rather by metastable phases. Knowledge of systems in which metastable phases can form has increased considerably in recent years. Rapid quenching increases the tendency to form metastable phases including ultimately for appropriate compositions the amorphous metallic glasses. In any discussion about metastable phases there arises the question of the conditions under which they form and their stability which depends on temperature, pressure and composition. In the present work some attempts to describe the thermal stability of metallic glasses and the experimental means of measuring it are discussed.