NANOPHASE PROCESSING OF AMORPHOUS-ALLOYS

Since the pioneering work on the formation of amorphous alloys by Duwe z and coworkers using rapid quenching, a number of different strategie s for producing metallic glasses have emerged. However, the problem of processing bulk amorphous alloys remains an elusive goal. We have bee n exploring the possibilities of using a nanophase ultrafine amorphous particles, of approximately 5 nm, that can be compacted into bulk for ms in situ. We have used both joule heating and magnetron sputtering m ethods to synthesize amorphous alloys of Ni-Ti, Ni-Tb, Pd-Y, and Ti-1A l. These alloys were characterized by X-ray diffraction and differenti al scanning calorimetry. Preliminary results on sintering, crystalliza tion, and mechanical properties of these nanophase materials are discu ssed.