Anelastic Relaxation in Amorphous Pd39.5Ni39.5P21

In order to study the structural relaxation in an amorphous Pd39.5Ni39.5P21 specimen we measured the isothermal change in the internal friction of the as-quenched material with an inverted Kê-type torsion pendulum. This change reflects a reduction in the amount of free volume which is quenched-in during manufacturing. We also measured the anelastic relaxation behaviour of thoroughly annealed samples. At 498 K it turns out that both processes are governed by a spectrum of relaxation times with the anelastic relaxation process having its main peak at a value which is slightly larger than that found for the disappearance of free volume.