Scientific Achievement
First-ever in situ observation of the formation of the fundamental defects associated with deformation in an amorphous metal.
Significance and Impact
Experimental observations directly confirm theoretical predictions for how shear bands nucleate in amorphous materials, and offer a route to increase the ductility of a glassy material by precisely tuning these disordered atomic clusters in the initial structure to accommodate more homogeneous plasticity from the outset.
Research Details
- Scanning nanobeam electron diffraction can directly visualize the local short- to medium-range atomic ordering at the formation of a shear band.
- Molecular dynamics simulations showed a similar reduction in local order caused by shear transformation zone activation.
- Disordered clusters of atoms merge into shear transformation zones at high strain values and nucleate local shear banding.
