Superconductivity in a representative Zr-based bulk metallic glass

The Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) is investigated by means of electrical measurement. A superconducting transition was observed in the BMG which belongs to a typical type-II superconductor with a high Ginzburg-Landau parameter. The superconducting critical temperature T-c and the temperature gradient (-dH(c2)/dT)(Tc) of the upper critical field H-c2 near T-c is 1.62 K and 2.26 T/K, respectively. Some superconducting properties of the BMG are based on the electrical resistivity and critical field measurements. An analysis of the electron-phonon coupling constant gimel indicates that the Zr41Ti14CU12.5Ni10Be22.5 BMG is a weak-coupling superconductor with gimel approximate to 0.49. The observed linearity of H-c2(t) and its extrapolated low-temperature limiting value are discussed and compared to predicted behavior for H-c2(t). (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.