Insight into the Formation of Ultrafine Nanostructures in Bulk Amorphous Zr 54.5 Ti 7.5 Al 10 Cu 20 Ni 8

Bulk amorphous Zr 54.5 Ti 7.5 Al 10 Cu 20 Ni 8 is investigated by means of smal-angle neutron scattering (SANS), differential-scanning calorimetry (DSC), high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) and other methods. The formation of ultrafine nanostructures in the glassy phase is observed and explained by a new model. Structura fluctuations of randomly distributed partialy ordered domains grow during annealing just below the glass transition temperature by local re-ordering. During anneaing the DSC gives evidence for a increasing volume fraction of the localy ordered domains. At high volume fractions of impinging domains a percolation threshold on the interconnected domain boundaries occurs and enhanced diffusion becomes possible. At that stage SANS measurements lead to satistically significant scattering data. The SANS signals are anayzed in terms of a model taking into account spherica particles surrounded by diffusion zones and interparticle interference effects. The mean radius of the nanocrystaline particles is determined to 1 nm and the mean thickness of the depletion zone is 2 nm. The upper limit for the volume fraction after annealing at 653 K for 4hours is about 20 %. Electron microscopy confirms the size and shows that the particle are crystaline.