Isoconfigurational Elastic Constants and Liquid Fragility of a Bulk Metallic Glass Forming Alloy

Samples of Zr46.25Ti8.25Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 were isothermally annealed and quenched near the glass transition temperature and studied by the pulse-echo overlap technique. The shear modulus G of the samples shows a strong reversible dependence on annealing temperatures and, thus, on the specific configurational potential energy of the equilibrium liquid. The low-T dependence of G of the configurationally frozen glasses shows linear temperature dependence as expected by Debye-Grüneisen theory. The T dependence of G in the liquid state is directly related to the viscosity and fragility of the liquid.