Structural Signature of Plasticity Unveiled by Nano-Scale Viscoelastic Contact in a Metallic Glass

• DOI: 10.1038/srep29357
• Publication Date: 2016-07-07T09:40:01Z
• Authors: Y. M. Lu; J. F. Zeng; S. Wang; B. A. Sun; Q. Wang; J. Lu; S. Gravier; J. J. Bladin; W. H. Wang; M. X. Pan; C. T. Liu; Y. Yang
• Keywords: Shear matrix

Abstract Room-temperature plasticity in metallic glasses (MGs) is commonly associated with local structural heterogeneity; however, direct observation of the subtle change caused by vitally important but data are extremely scarce. Based on dynamic atomic force microscopy (DAFM), here we show that plasticity-induced evolution a Zr-Ni MG can be revealed via nano-scale viscoelastic contacts between an AFM tip and plastically deformed surface layers. Our experimental results clearly spatial amplification heterogeneity distributed plastic flow, which linked to limited growth, reorientation agglomeration some energy-absorbing regions, reminiscent behavior defect-like regions non-affine deformation as conceived many theories models. Furthermore, able experimentally extract thermodynamic properties these possess energy barrier 0.3–0.5 eV, about half for typical shear transformation event usually occurs at onset plasticity. The outcome our current work sheds quantitative insights into correlation MGs.