Dynamics of Johari-Goldstein β relaxation and its universal relation to α relaxation in bulk metallic glasses by mechanical spectroscopy

Abstract

The dynamics of the Johari–Goldstein (JG) β relaxation and the α relaxation in bulk metallic glasses (MGs) has been investigated by using mechanical spectroscopy combined with the Coupling Model. The β relaxations of MGs exhibit different behaviors such as peaks, humps, and excess wings due to the different fluctuations of the chemical interactions among the constituting atoms. A universal correlation between the β relaxation and the α relaxation is generally found by their activation energies and relaxation times as well as the non-exponentiality parameter of the α relaxation, which can be predicted quantitatively from the Coupling Model. Based on the quasi-point defects theory, a correlation factor χ shows a broad peak along with the β relaxation, suggesting that the concentration and the correlation degree of the string-like configurations involved in the β relaxation vary with increasing temperature, which challenges the previous view that the system is in an iso-configuration state below Tg and may shed new light on the nature of the JG β relaxation in metallic glasses.