Eur. Phys. J. B 80, 325-329 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-10812-0

On the level of mechanical loss in metallic glasses

¹ I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287-1604 Arizona, USA

Corresponding author: ^a ranko@asu.edu

Received: 22 October 2010
Revised: 10 February 2011
Published online: 18 March 2011

Abstract

Metallic glass samples with compositions Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_27.5 and Pd₇₇Cu₆Si₁₇, for which loss factors of up to 10^-2 have been reported, are reinvestigated with an electrostatic vibrating cantilever technique that detects dissipation factors tan δ as low as 10^-4. It is found that tan δ ≈ 4×10^-4 is a typical value for these alloys well below T_g, suggesting that previous results were limited by instrumental resolution. While aging the glasses increases their elastic moduli considerably, the measured loss factor is affected only marginally by thermal history.