Thermal variation of electrical resistance of an Al85Ni5Y8Co2 metallic glass free of quenched-in nuclei

Glassy Al85Ni5Y8Co2 ribbons without quenched-in nuclei were prepared by melt spinning. The electrical resistance was then measured upon heating in order to monitor the structure relaxation and phase transformations. Below the crystallization temperature, the variation of electrical resistance with temperature follows the relation ρ ( T ) = a + bT + cT 2 . While no obvious derivation was observed during glass transition, four steps of abrupt reduction in resistance were observed during subsequent heating. The first three steps correlate very well to the three crystallization processes as observed in DSC curves. The fourth step, which cannot be identified by conventional thermal analysis, might be due to the grain growth process.