Study of structural free volumes in the supercooled liquid state of bulk amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe

Structural free volumes in amorphous alloys play an important role for a lot of solid state properties. In this paper, we report on the determination of both the size and the chemical environment of structural free volumes in bulk amorphous Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 and particularly in the supercooled liquid state of the alloy by making use of measurements of the positron annihilation radiation. The free volumes in the supercooled liquid state are detected to be surrounded dominantly by Be and Ti atoms together with less Zr atom. The present investigations are of interest for atomic-scale understanding of the atomic processes in bulk amorphous alloys.