Bulk amorphous Mg-based alloys

The present paper describes the preparation and properties of bulk amorphous quarternary Mg-based alloys and the influence of additional elements on the ability of the alloy to form bulk amorphous. The main goal is to find a Mg-based alloy system which shows both high strength to weight ratio and a low glass transition temperature. The alloys were prepared by using a relatively simple technique, i.e. rapid cooling of the melt in a copper wedge mould. The essential structural changes that are achieved by going from the amorphous to the crystalline state through the supercooled liquid state are discussed in this paper. On the basis of these measurements phase diagrams of the different systems were constructed. Finally, it is demonstrated that when pressing the bulk amorphous alloy onto a metallic dies at temperatures within the supercooled liquid region, the alloy faithfully replicates the surface topology of dies with patterns smaller than 1 mum, suggesting potential applications in devices with submicrometer-scale features. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.