SPring-8, the large synchrotron radiation facility

Release Date

01 Aug, 2006

 Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) scientists have revealed that the formation of bulk metallic glass of elemental Zr and Ti, which was recently reported and growing interests among material scientists and engineers, was a phantom phenomenon. This discovery suggests that glass formation in elemental substances, which would tremendously develop industrial application if discovered, still remains a challenging subject. 

 To verify the high-pressure formation of bulk metallic glass, Dr. Hattori and his coworkers have investigated the high-pressure and high-temperature states of elemental Zr and Ti by a newly developed x-ray diffraction technique. Compared to a conventional method, this method can acquire the structural information of the sample over a wide diffraction angle through “x-ray transparent” high-pressure devices. Thus, they have obtained more reliable information on the state of the sample at high pressures and high temperatures. Based on the obtained data, they have revealed that Zr and Ti do not form glass but the grains rapidly grow and found the reason why the previous studies led to an incorrect conclusion.
This work was published in Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, No. 25 on June 30, 2006.

Article:
"Does Bulk Metallic Glass of Elemental Zr and Ti Exist?"
Takanori Hattori, Hiroyuki Saitoh, Hiroshi Kaneko, Yuka Okajima, Katsutoshi Aoki, and Wataru Utsumi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 255504 (2006)