Anomalous behavior of electrical resistivity in glass transition region of a bulk Pd40Ni40P20 metallic glass

Abstract The electrical resistivity of a bulk Pd40Ni40P20 metallic glass was measured as a function of temperature. This glass showed a positive slope, d ρ/ d T=(1.28±0.03)×10 −4 μ Ω m/K, with a residual resistivity ρ300 of 1.29±0.03 μ Ω m at room temperature. Also, the change in the resistivity due to the glass transition was carefully investigated, but, no variation in the neighborhood of glass transition temperature was observed. Bulk glasses Pd40Cu3Ni37P20 and Pd43Ni37P20 with slightly different composition were also prepared for a comparison. In case of these glasses, the slope, dρ/dT, varied at the glass transition, i.e. the resistivity decreased after the glass transition for the former and increased for the latter. The slope of the resistivity curve measured for the Pd40Ni40P20 melt was larger than that of the glass. Thus, the extrapolated resistivity to higher temperature did not connect smoothly with the resistivity of the liquid phase.