Crystallization kinetics of amorphous Ni80P20 alloy investigated by electrical resistance measurements

The eutectic crystallization process of an amorphous Ni80P20 alloy was moni tored by using electrical resistivity measurements (ERM). Upon heating the amorphous sample at constant rates. three distinct processes can be identif ied from the measured resistance variation with temperature during the crys tallization including (i) crystal nucleation, (ii) subsequent growth of cry stal nuclei, and (iii) coarsening of the crystallites. These features were verified by microscopy observations as well as the pre-annealing treatments . The activation energies for the crystal nucleation and growth determined from the ERM data agree satisfactorily with the literature data. The result s indicated that the ERM is a very sensitive method in detecting detailed i nformation during the early stage of crystallization from amorphous alloys.