Increasing the kinetic stability of bulk metallic glasses

Metallic glasses are non-equilibrium materials and the glass transition temperature upon heating Tg,h can be used to characterize the kinetic stability of the glass. Annealing below the glass transition is well- known to induce relaxation processes that reduce the glass enthalpy. We demonstrate that a liquid- cooled Au-based metallic glass can achieve very high kinetic stability by an optimal annealing treat- ment to yield a large increase in Tg,h of 28 K; this is 3e5 times larger than the increase usually reported. The measured enthalpy decrease of 1100 J/mol is about 50% of the difference between the as-cooled glass and the equilibrium crystalline state and reaches the extrapolated enthalpy of the supercooled liquid. The optimal annealing conditions can be determined by an enthalpy-temperature-time (ETT) diagram which is proposed for the first time based on the comprehensive examination of relaxation processes. At equilibrium, a direct relation is established between the increase in kinetic stability as measured by the increase in Tgh and the enthalpy decrease.