Positron annihilation study of free volume in electron irradiated Zr50Cu40Al10 bulk glassy alloy: Effects of thermal relaxation before irradiation

Change in free volume reflects various properties such as hardness and ductility of glassy alloys. The electron- and ion- irradiations affect the free volume of ZrCuAl bulk glassy alloys that is associated with the mechanical properties. In this study, as-quenched Zr50Cu40Al10 bulk glassy alloys and structural relaxed one by annealing for 5 hours at 673K below glass transition temperature (Tg) were irradiated by 8 MeV electrons with a maximum fluence of about 2×1018 e−/cm2 at room temperature. The behaviour of free volume in these samples was investigated by positron annihilation techniques. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that no crystallization occurred after the irradiation. We observed the positron lifetime increased by the irradiation for both as-quenched and structural relaxed samples. The increases in positron lifetime at 2×1018 e−/cm2 were 9 psec for as-quenched and 12 psec for relaxed sample, respectively. In addition, the increase in positron lifetime with irradiation fluence was clearly different for the two types of sample. These facts imply that the thermal relaxation before irradiation of Zr50Cu40Al10 bulk glassy alloy influences the radiation effects, especially the free volume change.