Devitrification of theNi80B20metallic glass

It has been proposed that devitrification of ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{80}{\mathrm{B}}_{20}$ metallic glass into ${\mathrm{Ni}}_3\mathrm{B}$ and crystalline Ni occurs in two separate stages whereby amorphous Ni is formed as an intermediate step. Present measurements of electric and magnetic parameters actually show that the above reaction occurs in a single step where ${\mathrm{Ni}}_3\mathrm{B}$ and a crystalline Ni-B alloy are formed directly from the original ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{80}{\mathrm{B}}_{20}$ amorphous phase. Since a large number of defects are present in these crystalline products (especially in the Ni-B alloy), they tend to evolve into more stable phases. Such an evolution may be the cause for previous interpretations that the studied reaction occurs in two steps.