Nano Express
Atomistic Origin of Rate-Dependent Serrated Plastic Flow in Metallic Glasses
1 State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics (LNM), Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100080, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
2 Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100080, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Nanoscale Research Letters 2008, 3:524-529 doi:10.1007/s11671-008-9192-7
Published: 4 November 2008Abstract
Nanoindentation simulations on a binary metallic glass were performed under various strain rates by using molecular dynamics. The rate-dependent serrated plastic flow was clearly observed, and the spatiotemporal behavior of its underlying irreversible atomic rearrangement was probed. Our findings clearly validate that the serration is a temporally inhomogeneous characteristic of such rearrangements and not directly dependent on the resultant shear-banding spatiality. The unique spatiotemporal distribution of shear banding during nanoindentation is highlighted in terms of the potential energy landscape (PEL) theory.
