Fig. 1. The heat flows for the initial and relaxed samples after the subtraction of the heat flow for the fully crystallized state (labelled (difference between runs 1 and 3) and (difference between runs 2 and 3), respectively). The inset shows DSC curves of the Zr₄₈(Cu_5/6Ag_1/6)₄₄Al₈ bulk metallic glass in the initial state (run 1), relaxed state obtained by preheating up to 715 K (run 2) and after the full crystallization (run 3).

Fig. 2. Temperature dependence of the shear modulus of Zr₄₈(Cu_5/6Ag_1/6)₄₄Al₈ bulk metallic glass in the initial, relaxed and crystalline states measured at a heating rate of 3 K/min. The black solid and dashed curves are calculated using Eq. (3), in good agreement with the experimental data.

Fig. 3. Temperature dependence of the derivative d ln (μ / G) / dT for the initial (red squares) and relaxed states (blue triangles). Positive and negative values of this derivative correspond to an increase and decrease of the defect concentration, respectively, as implied by Eq. (4). This is directly seen when compared with the inset, which shows temperature dependences of the defect concentration in the initial and relaxed states calculated using Eq. (5), see the text for more details.