Abstract
Despite significant atomic-scale heterogeneity, bulk metallic glasses well below their glass transition temperature exhibit a surprisingly robust elastic regime and a sharp elastic-to-plastic transition. Here it is shown that, when the number of available structural transformations scales exponentially with system size, a simple thermal-activation model is able to describe these features, where yield corresponds to a change from a barrier energy dominated to a barrier entropy dominated regime of shear transformation activity, allowing the system to macroscopically exit its frozen state. A yield criterion is then developed, which describes well the existing experimental data and motivates future dedicated deformation experiments to validate the model.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 220201 |
Journal | Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics |
Volume | 84 |
Issue number | 22 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 21 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics