Correlations of multiscale structural evolution and homogeneous flows in metallic glass ribbons

Abstract

Studying the flow behavior is critical to understand the deformation mechanism of amorphous solids. However, detecting the basic flow events in amorphous solids is challenging. Here, by simultaneous SAXS/WAXS, elementary flow carriers in wound metallic glasses are identified from flow-induced structural heterogeneities with a radius of gyration of 2.5∼3.5 nm. Their size increases and morphology changes from sphere-like to rod-like under flow. Moreover, the atomic structure exhibits an unusual change to a more disordered state during winding/annealing at the temperature of ∼0.8 T_g. This work provides an atomic-to-nanoscale description of the flow carriers of amorphous solids during deformation.

Impact Statement

The elementary flow carriers in metallic glasses have a radius of gyration of 2.5∼3.5 nm. During flow, their size increases and morphology changes from sphere-like to rod-like.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Metallic glasses
• flow units
• SAXS/WAXS scattering

Acknowledgements

Z.D. Wu and S. Lan acknowledge the support by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Neutron Scattering Science and Technology. This research used the resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory (No. DE-AC02-06CH11357).

Author contributions

S.L., Z.D.W., P.L. X.-L.W., W.H.W. designed the project; S.L. and J.D.A. performed the simultaneous synchrotron SAXS/WAXS experiments; P.L. prepared the samples and performed the mandrel-winding experiments; J.C. G, Z.D.W. and S.L. analyzed the SAXS/WAXS data; all authors reviewed the results, Z.D.W. and S.L. wrote the paper; Z.D.W., S.L., X.L.W. and W.H.W. supervised the overall research activities.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China: [grant no 2021YFB3802800, 2021YFA1200203]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [grant no 51871120, 52222104, 52201190, 12261160364]; Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province: [grant no BK20200019]; Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program: [grant no JCYJ20200109105618137]; Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee: [grant no JCYJ20170413140446951].