Correlation between structural relaxation enthalpy and superconducting properties of amorphous Zr70Cu30 and Zr70Ni30 alloys

The anneal-induced change in the superconducting properties together with the irrecoverable relaxation enthalpy (ΔHsub(i,exo)) and recoverable relaxation enthalpy (ΔHsub(r,endo)) of amorphous Zr70Cu30 and Zr70Ni30 alloys was examined. The increase in ΔHsub(i,exo) and the degradation of Tsub(c) progress logarithmically with annealing time tsub(a) in a temperature range of 373 to 523 K. The activation energy and the attempted frequency were respectively estimated to be 1.5 eV and 6.6 x 1013 sec-1 for the increase in ΔHsub(i,exo) and 1.5 eV and 1.9 x 1014 sec-1 for the degradation of Tsub(c). The recoverable structure relaxation exerts little effect on Tsub(c). Based on the agreement between the kinetic parameters for the changes of ΔHsub(i,exo) and Tsub(c), it appears that the degradation of Tsub(c) on annealing is associated with the irrecoverable structural relaxation as a result of the annihilation of frozen-in defects and the topological and compositional atomic rearrangement. The values of the attempted frequency being of the order of Debye frequency suggest that the irrecoverable structural relaxation processes occur more or less independently from each other. (author)