Nitrogen as an alloying element in some metallic glasses

Abstract

Glassy alloy ribbons containing nitrogen as an alloying element have been produced by chill block melt-spinning master alloys which were specially pre-melted for enhanced nitrogen content. Alloying substantial amounts of Cr, a potent nitride former, has been found to greatly increase the amount of nitrogen in solution. In turn, thermal stability of the Cr-bearing metallic glasses has been found to increase as much as 31 K with only a 0.5 at% nitrogen addition. No analogous changes in glassy alloy embrittlement or Curie temperature have been observed. However, although weak, the response of Curie temperature to annealing in the Cr-bearing metallic glasses was found to be affected by the presence of nitrogen. Thus, nitrogen appears to be a viable alloying element in some metallic glasses and may have a potent effect on some properties.