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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
08:55
Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Electrical Resistivity Change Upon Crystallization as a Robust Descriptor for Metallic Glass Forming Ability
Haechan Jo1,2, Hongxi Duan2, Mingxing Li2
1School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea.
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
|July 18, 2026
Summary
Identifying high glass forming ability (GFA) metallic glasses is accelerated by measuring electrical resistivity changes during annealing. This rapid method reveals crystallization resistance, significantly speeding up the discovery of new metallic glass compositions.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Solid State Physics
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- Discovering new metallic glasses with high glass forming ability (GFA) is crucial but hindered by slow identification methods.
- Current characterization techniques like diffraction and calorimetry are time-consuming, limiting the exploration of vast compositional spaces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a rapid and robust method for identifying high-GFA compositions in metallic alloys.
- To establish electrical resistivity change as a reliable descriptor for crystallization resistance and GFA.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of combinatorial thin film libraries with approximately 3500 alloy compositions.
- Measurement of electrical resistivity change upon thermal annealing for rapid screening.
- Correlation of resistivity change with GFA and crystallization kinetics (Avrami exponent, activation energy).
Main Results:
- A clear correlation was found between minimal electrical resistivity change and high GFA across various alloy systems.
- Regions of low resistivity change in compositional landscapes directly correspond to alloys with superior glass-forming capabilities.
- The resistivity-based descriptor accurately predicts crystallization kinetic parameters, indicating enhanced stability.
Conclusions:
- Electrical resistivity change upon annealing is an efficient descriptor for identifying high-GFA metallic glasses.
- This method offers a speed advantage of over two orders of magnitude compared to traditional techniques.
- The findings enable rapid mapping of microstructural stability and accelerate the exploration of new bulk metallic glasses.
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