The kinetic glass transition of the Zr46.75Ti8.25Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 bulk metallic glass former-supercooled liquids on a long time scale

Viscosity and enthalpy relaxation from the amorphous state into the supercooled liquid state was investigated in the bulk metallic glass forming Zr46.75Ti8.25Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 alloy below the calorimetric glass transition. At different temperatures, the viscosities relax into states that obey the same Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann relation as the data obtained at higher temperatures in the supercooled liquid. Enthalpy recovery experiments after relaxation in the same temperature range show that the enthalpy of the material reaches values that also corresponds to the supercooled liquid state. The glass relaxes into a metastable supercooled liquid state, if it is observed on a long time scale. Equilibration is possible far below the calorimetric glass transition and very likely even below the isentropic temperature.