Formation and characterization of amorphous erbium-based alloys prepared by near-isothermal cold-rolling of elemental composites

We report the formation of bulk single-phase amorphous Cu-Er and Ni-Er alloys by extensive cold-rolling of elemental foils. The reaction is driven by the negative enthalpies of mixing of the constitutent elements and occurs near ambient temperature. The crystallization behavior of the alloys obtained was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry and found to agree closely with that of the corresponding sputtered and liquid-quenched alloys. Radial distribution functions were measured for sputtered and rolled Cu72Er28 and were found to be in good agreement.