Crystallization and Electrical Properties of Amorphous Cu-Ag-P Alloys

Amorphous Cu-Ag-P alloys (Cu : 79～86, Ag : 6～14, P : 11～14 wt%) were prepared by melt-quenching technique. The crystallization process of these amorphous alloys was examined by electrical resistivity, X-ray diffraction and differential thermal analysis techniques. The T-T-T diagram of the amorphous Cu-Ag-P alloys could be divided into five distinct regions and the electrical resistivity of these alloys decreased in the order of amorphous → metastable-I → supersaturated metastable → metastable-II → stable state. Compared with traditional strain gauge materials, the present amorphous alloys exhibited a higher gauge factor (1.8～3.1), lower thermal electromotive force relative to copper (1.07μv/℃), comparable specific resistivity at room temperature (80μΩ・cm) and higher negative temperature coefficient of specific resistivity (-0.7～-1.2x10^/℃). These values showed to be useful as guage materials below the crystallization temperature