Relationship between low-temperature boson heat capacity peak and high-temperature shear modulus relaxation in a metallic glass

Abstract

Low-temperature $\left(2\text{K}\le T\le 350\text{K}\right)$ heat capacity and room-temperature shear modulus measurements $\left(\nu =1.4\text{MHz}\right)$ have been performed on bulk ${\text{Pd}}_{41.25}{\text{Cu}}_{41.25}{\text{P}}_{17.5}$ in the initial glassy, relaxed glassy, and crystallized states. It has been found that the height of the low-temperature Boson heat capacity peak strongly correlates with the changes in the shear modulus upon high-temperature annealing. It is this behavior that was earlier predicted by the interstitialcy theory, according to which dumbbell interstitialcy defects are responsible for a number of thermodynamic and kinetic properties of crystalline, (supercooled) liquid, and solid glassy states.