Mechanism for microstructural evolution induced by high temperature deformation in Zr-based bulk metallic glasses

In the Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 (Vit1) alloy undergoing high temperature deformation, its thermal properties and microstructure are quite different from those in the annealing alloy. In order to research the coupled effect of temperature and plastic strain on microstructural evolution of Zr-based amorphous, uniaxial compression test of Vit1 alloy with good amorphous nature has been performed, and then the structural state and thermal properties of Vit1 alloy after thermal deformation and isothermal annealing in the supercooled liquid region were investigated. It is revealed that the deformed specimens possess higher characteristic temperature and lower enthalpy change of microstructural relaxation. In addition, the smaller inter-atomic distance and higher order degree of atomic arrangement can be observed in those deformed Vit1 alloy. That can be deduced that thermal deformation is in favor of the microstructural evolution from a metastable amorphous state to stable crystallization state, because plastic strain promotes the annihilation of free volume and provide excess driving force of atomic diffusion. However, upon increasing the ambient temperature, the influence of plastic deformation on microstructure gradually decreased owing to the decreasing proportion of the plastic deformation-induced annihilation of free volume during the whole thermal deformation process.