Effects of thermal relaxation on an amorphous superconducting Zr--Rh alloy

The electronic and superconducting properties of an amorphous transition metal alloy are used to evaluate the effects of low temperature annealing. It is observed that the superconducting transition temperature and the electrical resistivity relax exponentially in time from their initial value to a final relaxed value. From this an activation energy for the relaxation process is derived and an explanation is suggested which involves internal stress