Specific volume study of a bulk metallic glass far below its calorimetrically determined glass transition temperature

High-precision LASER dilatometry with a unique measurement setup was applied to the bulk metallic glass alloy Zr52.5Ti5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10 (Vit105) for specific volume studies. Employing small temperature steps of Delta T = 5 and 10 K and long measurement times effective heating rates of the order of 10(-2) K/min were realized and changes of the specific volume were measured with a resolution of Delta V/V = 10(-6) down to 573 K. The temperature regime of these experiments is far below a calorimetrically determined glass transition of T calor g = 659 K (5 K/min). The experimental results strongly support theoretical predictions for the existence of an ideal glass transition that was observed in this study at T-g = 628 K for this bulk metallic glass model alloy.