Determination of the activation energy spectrum of structural relaxation in metallic glasses using calorimetric and shear modulus relaxation data

Abstract

We consider two methods for reconstruction of the activation energy spectra of structural relaxation from calorimetric and shear modulus relaxation data. The methods are based on the assumption that structural relaxation of metallic glasses can be understood as a relaxation change of the concentration of frozen-in defects similar to dumbbell interstitials (interstitialcies) in simple crystals. For three Pd- and Zr-based glasses taken as an example, it is shown that both methods give nearly the same results. We calculated a decrease of the defect concentration and showed that the heat of structural relaxation per defect for all three glasses practically coincides with the theoretical value of the interstitialcy formation enthalpy.