Change in electrical resistivity due to icosahedral phase precipitation in Zr₇₀Pd₂₀Ni₁₀ and Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_7.5Ni₁₀Ag₁₀ glasses

The glass-to-icosahedral phase transformation in Zr₇₀Pd₂₀Ni₁₀ and Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_7.5Ni₁₀Ag₁₀ glasses was examined by the electrical resistivity measurement performed with a heating rate of 0.67 K/s. The resistivity increased with the promotion of icosahedral precipitation in Zr₇₀Pd₂₀Ni₁₀ glass. On the other hand, Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_7.5Ni₁₀Ag₁₀ glass exhibited the decrement of the resistivity according to the evolution of icosahedral phase. The latter was qualitatively explained by the drop of the resistivity of supercooled liquid phase due to the transfer of oxide atoms into the icosahedral phase. Also, the low temperature resistivity experiment showed that the conductivity of glassy and icosahedral phases might obey the weak localization model of conduction electrons.