The deformation units in metallic glasses revealed by stress-induced localized glass transition

We report that even in quasi-static cyclic compressions in the apparent elastic regimes of the bulk metallic glasses, the precisely measured stress-strain curve presents a mechanical hysteresis loop, which is commonly perceived to occur only in high-frequency dynamic tests. A phenomenological viscoelastic model is established to explain the hysteresis loop and demonstrate the evolutions of the viscous zones in metallic glasses during the cyclic compression. The declining of the viscosity of the viscous zones to at least 1 x 10(12) Pa s when stress applied indicates that stress-induced localized glass to supercooled liquid transition occurs. We show that the deformation units of metallic glasses are evolved from the intrinsic heterogeneous defects in metallic glasses under stress and the evolution is a manifestation of the stress-induced localized glass transition. Our study might provide a new insight into the atomic-scale mechanisms of plastic deformation of metallic glasses. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4728207]