Bulk amorphous metal—An emerging engineering material

Abstract

During the last two decades, researchers have developed families of metal alloys that exhibit exceptional resistance to crystallization in the undercooled liquid state. Upon cooling, these alloys readily form glass or vitrify to form bulk amorphous alloys or bulk metallic glasses. The stability of the undercooled molten alloys with respect to crystallization has enabled studies of liquid thermodynamics, rheology, atomic diffusion, and the glass transition previously not possible in metallic systems. Bulk amorphous alloys exhibit very high strength, specific strength, and elastic strain limit, along with unusual combinations of other engineering properties. These factors, taken together, suggest that bulk amorphous metals will become widely used engineering materials during the next decade.