Concerning the theory of structural relaxation of amorphous alloys containing dissolved gas atoms

Abstract

This article deals with the effect of dissolved gas atoms on the structural relaxation of nonequilibrium amorphous system. These gas (helium) atoms may be accumulated in amorphous alloys as a result of the release of dissolved gas atoms in small pores created by fluctuation in local regions of amorphous system may result in stabilization of these pores. The subsequent intensive growth of gas bubbles increases the density of atoms of nonequilibrium amorphous matrix near these bubbles and accelerates the process of the structural relaxation of this system. The small value of nucleation energy barrier for bubbles in metallic glasses (1 ∼ 3 eV) indicates a possibility of formation of bubbles in the relaxing amorphous alloys with high glass temperature (such as NiNb with T = 800 ∼ 900K). Also the density of packing of gas atoms in “critical” bubble ( gup to = 0.3 ∼ 0.4) is obtained. This density corresponds to that of liquid phase.