Thermodynamic, transport and mechanical properties of amorphous metallic alloys: Relation to the glass transition

Properties related to the glass transition of metallic melts are reviewed both on empirical ground and using the statistics of local minima in the potential energy landscape of the material. For metallic alloys some correlations have been disputed (e.g., the one between the Kauzmann and VFT temperatures). In the first part of this report these issues are considered and the possible reasons for either good or poor correlation are outlined.Then the relationship of the glass transition to mechanical properties (e.g., strength, moduli) is described with special attention to the failure mechanism of amorphous alloys via shear band propagation. The relationships are discussed for glass-forming alloys in comparison also with properties of other families of glass-formers.