Young's modulus and internal friction in metallic glass alloys from 1.5 to 300 K

Abstract

An investigation of the acoustic properties of metallic glass alloys has been carried out in the temperature range 1.5-300 K. The Young's modulus and internal friction were measured in the frequency range 0.1-3 kHz using a vibrating-reed technique. The Young's modulus of the alloys investigated experienced large increases of from 26% to 39% after crystallization. The internal friction in the amorphous and crystalline phases of the binary alloys ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{0.81}$ ${\mathrm{Si}}_{0.19}$ is consistent with a thermoelastic relaxation process. Low-temperature anomalies in the damping and dispersion of multicomponent nickel and iron alloys were observed superimposed on the thermoelastic loss. The low-temperature measurements in the amorphous phase of ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{0.74}$ ${\mathrm{P}}_{0.16}$ ${\mathrm{C}}_{0.05}$ ${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.03}$ ${\mathrm{Si}}_{0.02}$ were characterized by a broad distribution of relaxation times. This distribution is asymmetric, corresponding to excess damping and dispersion at temperatures below the internal-friction maximum. Crystallization removes the asymmetry and the crystalline measurements fit a log-normal distribution of relaxation times with $\beta \simeq 13$. A temperature-dependent relaxation strength such as that proposed by Scott and MacCrone explains the main features of the observed low-temperature asymmetry.