Metallic Glasses

written by Sunghwan Kim ( murphy99@kaist.ac.kr )

The physical nature of metallic glasses is different from that of crystalline metals,

involved with a particular emphasis on the role of the local energy landscape

distribution and of the temperature. Mechanical properties of metallic glasses,

however, which correspond to higher yield strength but low ductility, have yet to be

fully established with their physical origin. We have recently investigated mechanical

properties of metallic glasses with irradiation by experiments and molecular dynamics

simulation. After the irradiation process, we discovered inhomogeneous-to-

homogeneous transition of plastic deformation of metallic glasses with significant

increase of toughness. Left panel : 200nm-diameter Zr57Nb5Al10Cu15.4Ni12.6 metallic

glass nanopillar with proton irradiation (~1 DPA). Right panel : 10nm-diameter

Zr47Cu46Al7 metallic glass nanopillar with 3000 Zr atom bombardments.