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In the past two decades, numerous relaxation or physical aging experiments of metallic glasses have revealed signatures of intermittent atomic-scale processes. Revealed via intensity cross-correlations from coherent scattering using X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), the observed abrupt changes in the time-domain of atomic motion does not fit the picture of gradual slowing down of relaxation times and their origin continues to remain unclear. Using a binary Lennard-Jones model glass subjected to microsecond-long isotherms, we show here that temporally and spatially heterogeneous atomic-cluster activity at different length-scales drive the emergence of highly non-monotonous intensity cross-correlations. The simulated XPCS experiments reveal a variety of time-dependent intensity-cross correlations that, depending on both the structural evolution and the 𝑞-space sampling, give detailed insights into the possible structural origins of intermittent aging measured with XPCS.
This manuscript is based on an oral contribution to the TMS 2020 annual meeting and is dedicated to Prof. Peter Liaw, who for decades has shown great interest in serrated plastic flow.
Here we will focus on the case of bulk metallic glasses, and begin with briefly summarizing some aspects of serrated and non-serrated inhomogeneous flow—a phenomenon that has perplexed materials scientists for decades. Four directions of research are identified that emerged out of the desire to fundamentally understand the intermittent inhomogeneous flow response. These research directions gear away from the phenomenological stress–strain behavior but put the underlying shear defect into focus. Unsolved problems and future research topics are discussed.
Quenching a metallic liquid sufficiently fast can give rise to an amorphous solid, typically referred to as a metallic glass. This out-of-equilibrium material has a long suite of remarkable mechanical and physical properties but suffers from property deterioration via structural relaxation. As a function of time, relaxation may indeed constitute significant threads to safe applications. Consequently, relaxation of glasses has a long history across different amorphous materials and typical characterization methods promote a picture of gradually evolving and smooth relaxation, as for example obtained from mechanical spectroscopy. However, the true structural dynamics and underlying mechanisms remain far from understood and have hampered a physically informed atomic-scale picture of transport and physical aging of glasses.
Here we exploit the ability to track atomic-scale dynamics with x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and resolve an unprecedented spectrum of short- and long-term relaxation time scales in metallic glasses. Conducted across temperatures and under the application of stress, the results reveal anything else than smooth aging and gradual energy minimization. In fact, temporal fluctuations persist throughout isothermal conditions over several hundred thousand of seconds, demonstrating heterogeneous dynamics at the atomic scale. In concert with microsecond molecular dynamic simulations, we identify possible mechanisms of correlated atomic-scale dynamics that can underly the temporal fluctuations and structural decorrelations. Despite temporally heterogeneous, the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts functions is well suited to capture the average intermediate relaxation time regime, but at very long time scales an asymptotic power-law emerges. This indicates anomalous diffusion and gives overall strong evidence for temporal fractional diffusion in metallic glasses. We discuss these results in terms of the structural fast and slow relaxation modes as well as a true microstructure in metallic glasses.
Ni-Mn-Ga shape-memory alloys are promising candidates for large strain actuation and magnetocaloric cooling devices. In view of potential small-scale applications, we probe here nanomechanically the stress-induced austenite–martensite transition in single crystalline austenitic thin films as a function of temperature. In 0.5 μm thin films, a marked incipient phase transformation to martensite is observed during nanoindentation, leaving behind pockets of residual martensite after unloading. These nanomechanical instabilities occur irrespective of deformation rate and temperature, are Weibull distributed, and reveal large spatial variations in transformation stress. In contrast, at a larger film thickness of 2 μm fully reversible transformations occur, and mechanical loading remains entirely smooth. Ab-initio simulations demonstrate how an in-plane constraint can considerably increase the martensitic transformation stress, explaining the thickness-dependent nanomechanical behavior. These findings for a shape-memory Heusler alloy give insights into how reduced dimensions and constraints can lead to unexpectedly large transformation stresses that need to be considered in small-scale actuation design.
Grain-boundary degradation via liquid-metal embrittlement (LME) is a prominent and long-standing failure process in next generation advanced high-strength steels. Here we reveal, well ahead of the crack tip, the presences of nano-scale grains of intermetallic phases in Zn-infiltrated but uncracked grain boundaries with scanning- and 4D transmission electron microscopy. Instead of the often-reported Znrich Fe-Zn intermetallics, the nano-scale phase in the uncracked infiltrated grain boundaries is identified as the G-phase, and its presence reveals the local enhancement of strain heterogeneities in the grain boundary network. Based on these observations, we argue that intermetallic phase formation is not occurring after cracking and subsequent liquid Zn infiltration but is instead one of the primary nanoscopic drivers for grain-boundary weakening and crack initiation. These findings shift the focus of LME from micro- and meso-scale crack investigations to the very early stages immediately following Zn diffusion, after which secondary phase nucleation and growth emerge as the root-cause for failure.
Metallic glasses (MGs) are disordered solids that exhibit a range of outstanding mechanical, thermomechanical, and functional properties. Whilst being a promising class of structural materials, well-defined and exploitable structure-property relationships are still lacking. This offsets them strongly from the crystalline counterparts, for which length-scale based property determination has been key for decades.
In recent years, both atomistic simulations and experiments have nurtured the view of heterogeneities that manifest themselves either as a structural partitioning into well-relaxed percolated network components and more frustrated domains in atomistic simulations, or as spatially-resolved property fluctuations revealed with atomic force microscopy. These signatures depend sensitively on the processing history and likely reflect emerging medium-range order fluctuations at the scale of 1-10 nanometers.
Here we demonstrate and discuss the emergence of spatially resolved property fluctuations at length scales that are one to two orders of magnitude larger. Such long-range decorrelation length scales are hard to reconcile in a monolithic glass but may offer the perspective of experimentally easy-to-access length-scale based structure-property relationships. Whilst long-range property fluctuations can be seen in both the plastic and elastic response, we focus here on high-throughput elastic nanoindentation mapping across the surface of a Zr-based model glass. After a deconvolution of surface topography and curvature effects, the spatially-resolved elastic response reveals an elastic microstructure with a correlation length of ca. 150-170 nm. Analytical scanning-transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is used to link the elastic property fluctuations to the chemistry and structure of the MG. In concert, nano-elastic mapping and STEM suggests that structural variations in the glass are responsible for the unexpectedly large length scales. We discuss these findings in terms of the materials processing history and the perspective of exploiting nanoindentation-based spatial mapping to uncover structural length scales in atomically disordered solids.
Filigree structures can be manufactured via two-photon-polymerization (2PP) operating in the regime of non-linear light absorption. For the first time it is possible to apply this technique to the powder processing of ceramic structures with a feature size in the range of the critical defect size responsible for brittle fracture and, thus, affecting fracture toughness of high-performance ceramics. In this way, tailoring of advanced properties can be achieved already in the shaping process. Traditionally, 2PP relies on transparent polymerizable resins, which is diametrically opposed to the usually completely opaque ceramic resins and slurries. Here we present a transparent and photocurable suspension of nanoparticles (resin) with very high mass fractions of yttria-stabilized zirconia particles (YSZ). Due to the extremely well dispersed nanoparticles, scattering of light can be effectively suppressed at the process-relevant wavelength of 800 nm. Sintered ceramic structures with a resolution of down to 500 nm were obtained. Even at reduced densities of 1 to 4 g/cm³, the resulting compressive strength with 4,5 GPa is equivalent or even exceeding bulk monolithic yttria stabilized zirconia. A ceramic metamaterial is born, where the mechanical properties of yttria stabilized zirconia are altered by changing geometrical parameters and gives access to a new class of ceramic materials.
Lamellar eutectics are known to evidence plastic shear in otherwise brittle intermetallics, if the lamella spacing is small enough. Here we pursue this idea of confined plasticity in intermetallics further and demonstrate room-temperature shear-deformation in a two-phase CuAl 2 -CuAl intermetallic nano- composite. The presence of a phase with a 3-fold symmetry is also revealed after deformation. Simula- tion of transmission electron microscopy images shows this to be monoclinic CuAl. These observations are made in the deformation zone underneath locations of nanoindents, of which the force-displacement curves exhibit an unusual response of continuously increasing pop-in sizes with load.
Brittle materials, such as oxide glasses, are usually very sensitive to flaws, giving rise to a macroscopic fracture strength that is much lower than that predicted by theory. The same applies to metallic glasses (MGs), with the important difference that these glasses can exhibit certain plastic strain prior to catas- trophic failure. Here we consider the strongest metallic alloy known, a ternary Co 55 Ta 10 B 35 MG. We show that this macroscopically brittle glass is flaw-insensitive at the micrometer scale. This discovery emerges when testing pre-cracked specimens with self-similar geometries, where the fracture stress does not de- crease with increasing pre-crack size. The fracture toughness of this ultra-strong glassy alloy is further shown to increase with increasing sample size. Both these findings deviate from our classical under- standing of fracture mechanics, and are attributed to a transition from toughness-controlled to strength- controlled fracture below a critical sample size.
A giant Zn segregation transition is revealed using CALPHAD-integrated density-based modeling of segregation into Fe grain boundaries (GBs). The results show that above a threshold of only a few atomic percent Zn in the alloy, a substantial amount of up to 60 at.% Zn can segregate to the GB. We found that the amount of segregation abruptly increases with decreasing temperature, while the Zn content in the alloy required for triggering the segregation transition decreases. Direct evidence of the Zn segregation transition is obtained using high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Base on the model, we trace the origin of the segregation transition back to the low cohesive energy of Zn and a miscibility gap in Fe-Zn GB, arising from the magnetic ordering effect, which is confirmed by ab-initio calculations. We also show that the massive Zn segregation resulting from the segregation transition greatly assists with liquid wetting and reduces the work of separation along the GB. The current predictions suggest that control over Zn segregation, by both alloy design and optimizing the galvanization and welding processes, may offer preventive strategies against liquid metal embrittlement.