Direct determination of energy, spectrum of structural relaxation of metallic glasses

In terms of the model of the homogeneous structural relaxation of metallic glasses controlled by relaxation centers (RC), the method is proposed for t he reconstruction of an RC energy spectrum directly from experimental data on the rates of creep of these glasses. A general expression was obtained t hat relates the shape of the RC energy spectrum to the observed kinetics of creep of metallic glass. For the case where, after an isothermal holding, metallic glass is heated at a constant rate, the working analytical formula s that describe the reconstruction of the RC energy spectrum (current and i nitial) are derived from the above general expression. The obtained tempera ture dependences of the characteristic energy (i.e., the activation energy for those RCs that make the main contribution to the kinetics of creep at a given time instant) are of an independent interest. Calculation results ar e in agreement with data from other sources and refine them. A coincidence is noted between the temperature of the transition between two modes of hom ogeneous creep calculated in this work and the temperature of the experimen tally observed change in the behavior of metallic glasses that was previous ly interpreted as a transition from inhomogeneous to homogeneous flow.