Correlation between Electrical Resistivity and the Structural Evolution of Zr-Based Bulk Amorphous Alloys

Abstract

The electrical resistivity of three kinds of Zr-based bulk amorphous alloys as a function of continuous increasing temperature was measured by the direct current four-probe method. Combining with Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the correlation between the electrical resistivity and structural evolution of these amorphous alloys has been demonstrated. The experimental results showed that three amorphous alloys all had a small negative temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR<-10-4 K-1) before crystallization. Little change of the electrical resistivity related with the glass transition process was observed, while the electrical resistivity decreased sharply once the crystallization occurred. The onset of crystallization determined by the electrical resistivity measurement was far lower than that by DSC. The different stages of crystallization behavior could be evidently identified by the change of the electrical resistivity.