The use of Young’s modulus to monitor relaxation in metallic glasses

The kinetics of change of Young’s modulus E during isothermal relaxation and crystallization of an all-metal glass Cu60Zr40 has been measured by a pulse-echo technique. E increases by about 10% between the as-quenched and fully relaxed states. Crystallization of the glass produces a further 15% increase in E. The kinetics of the relaxation process can be fitted to an expression of the form ΔE=a ln t+b. a)On leave from the Institute of Physics, Saragevo, Yugoslavia.