Elastic Moduli Inheritance and Weakest Link in Bulk Metallic Glasses

Abstract

We show that a variety of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) inherit their Young’s modulus and shear modulus from the solvent components. This is attributed to preferential straining of locally solvent-rich configurations among tightly bonded atomic clusters, which constitute the weakest link in an amorphous structure. This aspect of inhomogeneous deformation, also revealed by our in-situ neutron diffraction studies of an elastically deformed BMG, suggests a scenario of rubber-like viscoelasticity owing to a hierarchy of atomic bonds in BMGs.