High Pressure Studies on Group IV Transition Metals Based Metallic Glasses

The compression behavior of Group IV transition metals based metallic glasses Ti37Zr29Cu15.5Ni14.5Be4 and Zr57Cu15.4Ni12.6Al10Nb5 are investigated at room temperature up to 74 GPa in a diamond anvil cell using in-situ energy and angular dispersive x-ray diffraction with a synchrotron radiation source. The x-ray diffraction studies did not reveal any pressure induced crystallization phenomenon in metallic glasses to a volume compression of 35 percent. In Zr-based metallic glass, a nanostructured tetragonal Zr2Ni phase was observed and also found to be stable to the highest pressure. The measured equation of state (Pressure-Volume curve) of Group IV transition metals based metallic glasses is compared to the known high phases of transition metals.