Bulk metallic glasses deform via slip avalanches.
For the first time in metallic glasses, we extract both the exponents and scaling functions that describe the nature, statistics, and dynamics of slip events during slow deformation, according to a simple mean field model. We model the slips as avalanches of rearrangements of atoms in coupled shear transformation zones (STZs). Using high temporal resolution measurements, we find the predicted, different statistics and dynamics for small and large slips thereby excluding self-organized criticality. The agreement between model and data across numerous independent measures provides evidence for slip avalanches of STZs as the elementary mechanism of inhomogeneous deformation in metallic glasses.
Department of Physics and Institute of Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
James
J
Antonaglia
Department of Mechanical Engineering, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA and Department of Chemical Engineering, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA.
Wendelin J
WJ
Wright
Department of Mechanical Engineering, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA.
Xiaojun
X
Gu
Department of Physics and Astronomy, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA.
Rachel R
RR
Byer
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Todd C
TC
Hufnagel
Department of Physics and Institute of Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Michael
M
LeBlanc
Department of Physics and Institute of Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA and Department of Mechanical Engineering, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA and Department of Chemical Engineering, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA and Department of Physics and Astronomy, One Dent Drive, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Jonathan T
JT
Uhl
Department of Physics and Institute of Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Karin A
KA
Dahmen