Glass formation versus nanocrystallization in an Al92Sm8 alloy

Solid state glass formation is often viewed as a non-equilibrium process resulting from the destabilization of crystalline phases when the maximum metastable solubility is exceeded. In this work, glassy Al92Sm8 alloys which have been obtained by both rapid quenching and deformation mixing techniques have been studied as a representative of a marginal glass forming material. The samples were examined to explore whether the nucleation of nanocrystals can be avoided by choosing an appropriate reaction pathway and whether the changes in the reaction pathway can influence the kinetic stability of the amorphous phase