Abstract
Some aspects of structural relaxation in metallic glasses are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the effect of composition on short-range ordering and on a kinetic analysis of changes in certain physical properties induced by relaxation. Preferential interactions between unlike atoms in multicomponent amorphous systems lead to inhomogeneous starting conditions and to different effects in the first stages of relaxation. Correlations between changes in some physical properties and elementary mechanisms affecting the changes are discussed on the basis of kinetic analysis of structural relaxation. An activation energy spectra model is adopted for amorphous Fe–Ni–Cr–P–B alloys, under both isothermal and tempering conditions.