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Electromagnetic vibration process for producing bulk metallic glasses

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 289–292 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

It is known that the cooling rate from the liquid state is an important factor in the production of bulk metallic glasses. However, the effects of other factors such as electric and magnetic fields have not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we present a new method for producing bulk metallic glasses by using electromagnetic vibrations with simultaneous imposition of an alternating electric current and a magnetic field. This method was found to be effective in enhancing apparent glass-forming ability in Mg65-Cu25-Y10 (atomic percent) alloys. Indeed, larger bulk metallic glasses could be obtained by the electromagnetic vibration process under the same cooling conditions. We presume that disappearance or decrement of clusters by the electromagnetic vibrations applied to the liquid state cause suppression of crystal nucleation. This electromagnetic vibration process should be effective in other bulk metallic glass systems if the clusters in the liquid state cause the crystal nucleation.

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Figure 1: Mg65-Cu25-Y10 alloys cooled under electromagnetic vibrations at different intensities.
Figure 2: HRTEM image of the Mg65-Cu25-Y10 alloy cooled under electromagnetic vibrations at B = 10 T.
Figure 3: The effect of applied time of the electromagnetic vibrations to the liquid state on optical micrographs.
Figure 4: The effect of rest time between the end of the electromagnetic treatment and the onset of the water spray on optical micrographs.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by a grant for the Metallic Glasses Project of the Material Industrial Competitiveness Strengthening Program from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The authors are grateful to N. Nishiyama for numerous helpful discussions. The authors also thank K. Yasue, Y. Sakaguchi and H. Matsubara for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solidification Processing Group, Materials Research Institute for Sustainable Development, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Nagoya, 463-8560, Japan

    Takuya Tamura, Rudi S. Rachmat, Yoshiki Mizutani & Kenji Miwa

  2. RIMCOF Tohoku University Laboratory, R&D Institute of Metals and Composites for Future Industries, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

    Kenji Amiya

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  1. Takuya Tamura
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Correspondence to Takuya Tamura.

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Tamura, T., Amiya, K., Rachmat, R. et al. Electromagnetic vibration process for producing bulk metallic glasses. Nature Mater 4, 289–292 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1341

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