Crystallization features in Al90Y10 amorphous alloy under a various external influence

Abstract The effect of high stress and high temperature on the structure of binary Al 90 Y 10 amorphous alloy has been investigated. Deformation of the alloy was carried out by high pressure torsion at room temperature; heating was produced up to 220 °C. It was revealed that both treatments leaded to the primary crystallization of the alloy. Produced Al nanocrystals were randomly distributed over the amorphous matrix. For the deformed sample no correlation between the location of nanocrystals and the positions of shear bands was observed. The nanocrystals formed due to the deformation were more euhedral and smaller in average size (~9 nm) than those produced by heating (~15 nm). We have shown that the size distributions for two states of the alloy differ from each other substantially. Based on the obtained data for Al nanocrystals size distribution we have concluded that the deformation-induced nanocrystallization in Al 90 Y 10 occurs by heterogeneous mechanism and the crystallization at the heating takes place by the mixed (heterogeneous and homogeneous) one.