Thermal, mechanical and physical properties of supercooled liquid in Pd-Cu-Ni-P amorphous alloy

The thermal stability, storage modulus (E'), loss tangent (tanδ), temperature coefficient of thermal expansion (α) and electrical resistivity of a supercooled liquid were measured for an amorphous Pd ₄₀Cu ₃₀Ni ₁₀P ₂₀ alloy with a wide supercooled liquid region before crystallization. The wide supercooled liquid region of 80 K is retained even at the low heating rate of 0.083 K/s. The E' of the supercooled liquid decreases monotonously from 6.0 to 0.35 GPa with increasing temperature from 540 to 590 K and the tanδ increases from 0.07 to 0.52. These changes takes place through a single stage. The α value of the supercooled liquid is measured to be 2.0×10 ^-2 K ^-1 which is larger by three orders than that (2.0×10 ^-5 K ^-1) for the corresponding amorphous solid. The electrical resistivity decreases through two stages in the range from 2.27 to 2.15 μΩm the supercooled liquid from 563 to 648 K. These physical and mechanical properties of the supercooled liquid are significantly different from those for the corresponding amorphous solid and important for future development of basic science of supercooled liquid and bulk amorphous alloys.