Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
The microstructure of two metastable crystalline phases, which are formed during the first step of the crystallization process in Ni–Zr metallic glasses, was investigated by transmission electron microscopy. For the composition Ni33Zr67, crystallites with average size of 150 nm having the face-centered cubic E93 structure are formed. For the Ni42Zr58 composition, 100 nm size crystallites with a simple cubic unit cell, space group Pa3 are formed. The microstructure of the crystallites in the early stage of crystallization of the two phases is similar to globular morphology and internal striations.