Thermal stability of amorphous Zr-Cu alloys

By means of differential scanning calorimetry we have studied the glass transition and crystallization in various amorphous Zr1−xCux alloys in the concentration range 0.25 ? × ?0.90. Included in this investigation are several amorphous alloys of Cu and either Hf, La, Gd, Dy, Er, or Y. A linear relationship is observed when the crystallization temperatures are plotted versus the energy neeeded to create a hole the size of a Cu atom in the various alloys. Experimental values for the activation energies of the crystallization processes were dervived by studying these processes with different heating rates. These activation energies are in general larger than the hole-formation enthalpies.