Vitrification and devitrification processes in metallic glasses

The phenomenon of vitrification on cooling, also called the glass-transition still remains not fully understood. Recent studies by different techniques were performed in order to shed light on this and on the converse phenomenon of devitrification. Devitrification may either lead to the formation of a supercooled liquid, a crystal(s) or a quasicrystal(s). The present paper is a review of recent findings on the processes of vitrification and devitrification in metallic glasses. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.