Patent ID: 7520944

Claim:
A method for forming an in-situ composite of a metallic alloy comprising the steps of: providing an initial alloy composition that forms a crystalline solid solution phase at temperatures below the alloy's liquidus temperature, wherein the initial alloy has a composition represented by the generic formula AxZy, wherein A is the primary element, Z is the solute element, and x and y are percent quantities, and wherein size of the atomic radii of the primary element and the solute element are different by more than about 10%; heating a quantity of the initial alloy composition to a temperature above the alloy's liquidus temperature to form a molten alloy; cooling the molten alloy from above the liquidus temperature, down to a temperature range below the liquidus temperature such that at least a portion of the molten alloy transforms to the crystalline solid solution phase to form an at least partially crystallized alloy; further cooling the at least partially crystallized alloy down to a remelting temperature range below a metastable remelting temperature and above the glass transition temperature of the alloy; holding the alloy within the remelting temperature range sufficiently long to form a significant volume fraction of an undercooled liquid alloy from the at least partially crystallized alloy; and quenching the undercooled liquid alloy down to temperatures below the glass transition temperature of the alloy such that the material is frozen as a composite metallic glass alloy having at least a partial crystalline amorphous phase therein.