Relationship between boson heat capacity peaks and evolution of heterogeneous structure in metallic glasses

The dependence of boson heat capacity peaks of a typical Zr52.5Ti5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10 metallic glass on different annealing time and quenching rates is studied. It is found that the boson heat capacity peak moves to higher temperatures and reduces intensity when the metallic glass is isothermally annealed or slowly quenched. We show that the intensity and position change of the boson heat capacity peak are associated with the evolution of heterogeneous structure and inelastic regions in metallic glasses. The results might help in understanding the structural features and evolution as well as their effects on boson peak of metallic glasses. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.