Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
The problem of structural properties and structural defects of amorphous solids is still of vital importance. To make clear whether stable point defects exist in metallic glasses (MGs) or not, we have studied the accumulation and recovery kinetics of radiation defects in ZrTiCuNiBe and ZrTiCuNiAl bulk MGs irradiated with 2.5 MeV electrons at T ∼ 80 K. The electrical resistance measurements of the irradiated samples were performed. The recovery spectrum of irradiation-induced electrical resistance was measured for the 85–300 K temperature range. The most important result of the recovery experiments is that they clearly show the annealing stages for the irradiated samples. Two annealing peaks located at T∼150 K and T∼225 K are resolved for ZrTiCuNiBe glass. Similar peaks are also revealed for ZrTiCuNiAl. It can be concluded from the data that the defect mobility is a thermally activated process, and that the activation energy is not as high as that for vacancies in crystalline alloys. Thus, the data obtained testify in favor of the structure with “perfect” local ordering of atoms. It should be noted that this property is basic in the formulation of the polycluster model of amorphous solids.