Thermopower and resistivity of binary metallic glasses

• Main Author: Baibich, Mario Norberto
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1982
• Subjects: Metallic glasses.; Binary systems (Metallurgy); Electric resistance.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=68625

The resistivity and thermopower of two series of amorphous alloys have been measured between 4 and 300K. The alloys studied are MgZn and CuZr, both in the largest concentration range available as amorphous materials. The alloys were measured in both the 'as made' and 'relaxed' states, as well as some partial or totally crystallized samples. The simple Ziman theory was found at variance with the experimental results in both cases (even for MgZn, proven to be free-electron like as required by the theory). A simple two component model is proposed as an extreme simplification of the Faber-Ziman theory of liquid metallic alloys. The excellent agreement obtained indicates that metallic glasses should be considered as the alloys they really are. A full Faber-Ziman calculation is performed for CuZr and from this follows the conclusion that the term containing the energy dependence of the pseudo-potential (r), usually assumed to be small, is probably of comparable magnitude to that of the disorder scattering (q). The suggested correlations between the electron-phonon mass-enhancement parameter (lamda) (determined from superconductivity experiments) and the thermopowers are studied and both found not to be valid for CuZr amorphous alloys.