TY - JOUR A1 - Rashidi, Reza A1 - Riechers, Birte A1 - Rosalie, Julian A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Annealing-dependent elastic microstructure in a Zr-based metallic glass N2 - In this letter, we demonstrate the robust presence of an elastic microstructure in a Zr-based metallic glass (MG) with a characteristic length-scale of the order of 100 nm. This length scale increases systematically towards the MG surface in differently sized casts, whereas thermal relaxation homogenizes both the internal length-scale gradient and the magnitude of the elastic fluctuations. Strongest changes during relaxation arise in the stiffest parts of the elastic microstructure. These findings indicate that the elastic microstructure emerges due to cooling constraints and may therefore be a microstructural manifestation of the internal residual stresses that arise during MG-solidification. KW - Metallic glass KW - Heterogeneity KW - Elastic microstructure KW - Nanoindentation PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-610962 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2024.116380 VL - 255 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Amsterdam, Niederlande AN - OPUS4-61096 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rashidi, Reza A1 - Vaerst, Olivia A1 - Riechers, Birte A1 - Rösner, Harald A1 - Wilde, Gerhard A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - Atomic-scale strain fluctuations as an origin for elastic microstructures in metallic glasses N2 - Metallic glasses (MGs) exhibit an elastic microstructure that spans from a few to hundreds of nanometers, the origin of which continues to remain poorly understood. Here we employ four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) on a Zr65Cu25Al10 (at. %) bulk MG. Mapping local diffraction patterns over representative areas also probed elastically with automated nanoindentation, two comparable correlation length scales have been identified. Specifically, local diffraction patterns are analyzed with respect to their ellipticity, revealing systematic fluctuations between positive and negative volumetric strains. A power spectrum analysis of the strain fluctuations returns a dominant length scale of the order of 100 nm, which is very much compatible with what elastic property mapping indicates. Annealing reduces the magnitude of the statistical strain fluctuations, without strongly affecting the associated fluctuation length scale. These findings demonstrate that atomic-scale strains are very likely the origin of the structurally unexpected large elastic fluctuations obtained in nanoscale contact mechanics experiments. KW - Metallic glass KW - 4D-STEM KW - Strain anisotropy KW - Nanoindentation KW - Elastic microstructure KW - Heterogeneities PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-654991 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2026.121982 SN - 1359-6454 VL - 308 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier Inc. AN - OPUS4-65499 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Riechers, Birte A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - nanoindentation data associated with the publication "On the elastic microstructure of bulk metallic glasses" in Materials&Design 2023 N2 - This dataset consists of indentation data measured with a conospherical tip in a Hysitron-Bruker TI980 Nanoindenter on the surface of a <100> Silicon wafer and a polished cross-sectional cut of a Zr65Cu25Al10 bulk metallic glass. It is associated with the following publication: Birte Riechers, Catherine Ott, Saurabh Mohan Das, Christian H. Liebscher, Konrad Samwer, Peter M. Derlet and Robert Maass "On the elastic microstructure of bulk metallic glasses" Materials and Design xxx, (2023) 111929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2023.111929 All experimental information can be found in this paper and in the accompanying supplementary information. This electronic version of the data was published on the "Zenodo Data repository" found at http://zenodo.org/deposit in the community "Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM)". The authors have copyright to these data. You are welcome to use the data for further analysis, but are requested to cite the original publication whenever use is made of the data in publications, presentations, etc. Any questions regarding the data can be addressed to birte.riechers@bam.de who would also appreciate a note if you find the data useful. KW - Metallic glasses KW - Nanoindentation KW - Elastic microstructure PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7818224 PB - Zenodo CY - Geneva AN - OPUS4-57352 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Riechers, Birte A1 - Ott, C. A1 - Das, S. M. A1 - Liebscher, C. A1 - Samwer, K. A1 - Derlet, P. M. A1 - Maaß, Robert T1 - On the elastic microstructure of bulk metallic glasses N2 - Metallic glasses (MGs) are known to be structurally heterogeneous at the nanometer (nm) scale. In addition, elastic property mapping has indicated the presence of at least an order-of-magnitude larger length scales, of which the origin continues to remain unknown. Here we demonstrate the existence of an elastic decorrelation length of the order of 100 nm in a Zr-based bulk MG using spatially resolved elastic property mapping via nanoindentation. Since compositional modulations sufficiently large to account for this elastic microstructure were not resolved by analytical scanning-transmission electron microscopy, chemical phase separation such as spinodal decomposition cannot explain their occurrence as previously suggested. Instead, we argue that the revealed long-range elastic modulations stem from structural variations affecting the local density. These emerge during solidification and are strongly influenced by the cooling constraints imposed on bulk MGs during the casting process. KW - Metallic glasses KW - Nanoindentation KW - Elastic microstructure PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-573504 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2023.111929 SN - 0264-1275 VL - 229 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam, Niederlande AN - OPUS4-57350 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -