title: Atomic picture of elastic deformation in a metallic glass.
abstract: The tensile behavior of a Ni60Nb40 metallic glass (MG) has been studied by using ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculation with a large cell containing 1024 atoms (614 Ni and 410 Nb). We provide insight into how a super elastic limit can be achieved in a MG. Spatially inhomogeneous responses of single atoms and also major polyhedra are found to change greatly with increasing external stress when the strain is over 2%, causing the intrinsically viscoelastic behavior. We uncover the origin of the observed super elastic strain limit under tension (including linear and viscoelastic strains) in small-sized MG samples, mainly caused by inhomogeneous distribution of excess volumes in the form of newly formed subatomic cavities.
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials (ICNSM), Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: X D
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110 USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aryal
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials (ICNSM), Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110 USA.
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Astronomy and Computational Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA22030, USA.
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2V4, Canada.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: D X
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials (ICNSM), Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Q P
authors.initials: QP
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: International Center for New-Structured Materials (ICNSM), Laboratory of New-Structured Materials, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: J Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Jiang