5 Werkstofftechnik
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We report on the mechanical properties of Cu–Nb alloys produced by combinatorial magnetron sputtering.
Depending on the composition, the microstructure is either fully amorphous (~30–65 at.% Cu), a dispersion of Cu crystallites in an amorphous matrix (~70 at.%), or a dominant crystalline phase with separated nanoscale amorphous zones (~80 at.% Cu). Nanomechanical probing of the different microstructures reveals that the hardness of the fully amorphous alloy is much higher than a rule of mixture would predict. We further demonstrate a remarkable tunability of the resistance to plastic flow, ranging from ca. 9 GPa in the amorphous regime to ca. 2 GPa in the fully crystalline regime. We rationalize these findings based on fundamental structural considerations, thereby highlighting the vast structure-property design space that this otherwise immiscible binary alloy provides.
Subjecting metallic glasses repeatedly to liquid nitrogen temperature has become a popular method to homogeneously rejuvenate the material. Here we reveal the atomic-scale structural dynamics using in- situ x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) during and after cryogenic cycling of a Zr-based metallic glass in two structural states (plate and ribbon). Heterogeneous structural dynamics is observed at 300 K that changes to monotonic aging at 78 K. It is found that cryogenic cycling homogenizes the relaxation time distribution. This effect is much more pronounced in the ribbon, which is the only structural state that rejuvenates upon cycling. We furthermore reveal how fast atomic-scale dynamics is correlated with longtime structural relaxation times irrespective of the structural state, and that the ribbon exhibits unexpected additional fast atomic-scale relaxation in comparison to the plate material. A structural picture emerges that points towards heterogeneities in the fictive temperature as a requirement for cryogenic energy storage.
Metallic glasses are known to have a remarkably robust yield strength, admitting Weibull moduli as high as for crystalline engineering alloys. However, their postyielding behavior is strongly varying, with large scatter in both flow stress levels and strains at failure. Using x-ray tomography, we reveal how a strain-dependent internal evolution of shear-band cavities underlies this unpredictable postyielding response.We demonstrate how macroscopic strain softening coincides with the first detection of internal shear-band cavitation. Cavity growth during plastic flow is found to follow a power law, which yields a fractal dimension and a roughness exponent in excellent agreement with self-similar surface properties obtained after fracture. These findings demonstrate how internal microcracking coexists with shear-band plasticity along the plastic part of a stress-strain curve, rationalizing the large variability of plastic flow behavior seen for metallic glasses.
How thermally activated structural excitations quantitatively mediate transport and microplasticity in a model binary glass at the microsecond timescale is revealed using atomistic simulation. These local excitations, involving a stringlike sequence of atomic displacements, admit a far-field shear-stress signature and underlie the transport of free-volume and bond geometry. Such transport is found to correspond to the Evolution of a disclination network describing the spatial connectivity of topologically distinct bonding environments, demonstrating the important role of geometrical frustration in both glass structure and its underlying dynamics.
Using the creation relaxation algorithm developed for the atomistic modeling of the high-dose irradiation limit of crystalline systems, we explore the limits of the structural rejuvenation of a highly excited model binary glass. This high-energy athermal amorphous structure exhibits a direct transition to homogeneous plastic flow and a microstructure that is largely insensitive to this flow, being characterized by a porous system-spanning network of minimally frustrated structural motifs. The observed homogeneous plasticity is mediated by the same string-like structural excitations, which mediate structural relaxation and microplasticity at finite temperature in more relaxed structures. This highly rejuvenated structural asymptote is not far from the structural state of regions, which have experienced athermal shear localization in more relaxed samples, suggesting an optimally rejuvenated glassy structure will always be limited by that produced by shear localization.
Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) conducted on an equiatomic MoNbTaW bcc medium-entropy alloy that was annealed at 2273 K reveals unexpectedly small 1st and 2nd shell element-specific lattice distortions. An experimental size-mismatch parameter, δexp, is determined to be ca. 50% lower than the corresponding calculated value. Around W, short-range order (SRO) preferring 4d elements in the 1st and 2nd shells persists. A Nb-W ordering is found, which is reminiscent of ordering emerging at lower temperatures in the B2(Mo,W;Ta,Nb)- and B32(Nb,W)-phases. With high-temperature ordering preferences in fcc also foreshadowing low-temperature phase, these findings suggest a general feature of high-temperature SRO.
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.
Silicate glass fracture surface energy calculated from crystal structure and bond-energy data
(2023)
We present a novel method to predict the fracture surface energy, γ, of isochemically crystallizing silicate glasses using readily available crystallographic structure data of their crystalline counterpart and tabled diatomic chemical bond energies, D0. The method assumes that γ equals the fracture surface energy of the most likely cleavage plane of the crystal. Calculated values were in excellent agreement with those calculated from glass density, network connectivity and D0 data in earlier work. This finding demonstrates a remarkable equivalence between crystal cleavage planes and glass fracture surfaces.
One of the most ubiquitous and important defects in solids is oxygen. Knowledge about the solubility and diffusivity of oxygen in materials is crucial to understand a number of important technological processes, such as oxidation, corrosion, and heterogeneous catalysis. Density-functional theory calculations of the thermodynamics and kinetics of oxygen in cobalt show that oxygen diffusing into the two close-packed phases, namely α (hcp) and β (fcc), strongly interacts with vacancies.We observe the formation of oxygen split-vacancy centers (V-Oi-V) in both phases, and we show that this defect complex exhibits a similar migration energy barrier to the vacancy and oxygen interstitials. In contrast to the vacancy and oxygen interstitials, the oxygen split-vacancy centers exhibit an anisotropic strain field that couples to applied stress, making it possible to observe them through an internal friction experiment on quenched cobalt.
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.
Liquid-metal embrittlement (LME) of galvanized (Zn-coated) advanced high-strength steels is a long-known problem in materials science. Here we reveal the initial microstructural processes underneath the Zn-coating that lead to LME-microcrack initiation in the steel substrate. We track the microstructural evolution during the first tens of milliseconds and find pronounced signatures of Fe-Zn intermetallic precipitation in both ferrite grain boundaries and at internal ferrite-oxide phase boundaries. In concert with novel CALPHAD-integrated density-based thermodynamic modelling, we demonstrate that Zn-rich intermetallic phase-nucleation can occur at markedly low processing temperatures due to a segregation transition. We show that a small Znenrichment caused by Zn bulk-diffusion during the initial temperature rise in a joining process is sufficient to induce the segregation transition and subsequent nucleation of Fe-Zn intermetallic grain-boundary phases, which the experiments link to crack initiation sites. These findings direct focus onto LME-controlling microstructural and thermodynamic phenomena at temperatures below the ductility trough and the austenite formation temperature.
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.
Magnetic shape memory alloys have been examined intensively due to their multifunctionality and multitude of physical phenomena. For both areas, epitaxial films are promising since the absence of grain boundaries is beneficial for applications in microsystems and they also allow to understand the influence of a reduced dimension on the physical effects. Despite many efforts on epitaxial films, two particular aspects remain open.
First, it is not clear how to keep epitaxial growth up to high film thickness, which is required for most microsystems.
Second, it is unknown how the microstructure of premartensite, a precursor state during the martensitic transformation, manifests in films and differs from that in bulk.
Here, we focus on micrometer-thick austenitic Ni-Mn-Ga films and explain two distinct microstructural features by combining high-resolution electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. First, we identify pyramid-shaped defects, which originate from {1 1 1} growth twinning and cause the breakdown of epitaxial growth. We show that a sufficiently thick Cr buffer layer prevents this breakdown and allows epitaxial growth up to a thickness of at least 4 μm. Second, premartensite exhibits a hierarchical microstructure in epitaxial films. The reduced dimension of films results in variant selection and regions with distinct premartensite variants, unlike its microstructure in bulk.
This work presents strong evidence for structural damage accumulation as a function of shear strain admitted by shear bands in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass. Analyzing the shear-band structure of shear- band segments that experienced shear strains covering four orders of magnitude with high-angle annular dark field transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) reveals strongly scattered data with on overall trend of increasing local volume dilatation with increasing shear strain. Locally, however, a variety of trends is observed, which underlines the strong heterogeneity of structural damage in shear bands in metallic glasses.
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.
Atomistic deformation simulations in the nominally elastic regime are performed for a model binary glass with strain rates as low as 10 4 /s (corresponding to 0.01 shear strain per 1 μs). A strain rate dependent elastic softening due to a micro-plasticity is observed, which is mediated by thermally-activated localized structural transformations (LSEs). A closer inspection of the atomic-scale structure indicates the material response is distinctly different for two types of local atomic environments. A system spanning iscosahe- drally coordinated substructure responds purely elastically, whereas the remaining substructure admits both elastic and microplastic evolution. This leads to a heterogeneous internal stress distribution which, upon unloading, results in negative creep and complete residual-strain recovery. A detailed structural analysis in terms of local stress, atomic displacement, and SU(2) local bonding topology shows such mi- croscopic processes can result in large changes in local stress and are more likely to occur in geomet- rically frustrated regions characterized by higher free volume and softer elastic stiffness. The thermally- activated LSE activity also mediates structural relaxation, and in this way should be distinguished from stress-driven shear transformation activity which only rejuvenates glass structure. The frequency of LSE activity, and therefore the amount of micro-plasticity, is found to be related to the degree to which the glassy state is relaxed. These insights shed atomistic light onto the structural origins that may govern re- cent experimental observations of significant structural evolution in response to elastic loading protocols.
The fracture surface of slow and continuous crack propagation during environmental stress cracking of a semicrystalline polyethylene exhibits isotropic roughness exponents at the local scale but resolved across the macroscopic fracture surface a clear position dependence is found. The spatially resolved roughness exponent admits values in the range between 0.1 and 0.4, demonstrating nontrivial exponents in the small length-scale regime. Instead, they vary across the fracture surface according to the stress-state distribution, which suggests that the exponents are intimately linked to the locally dominating dissipation processes during craze cracking.
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.
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.
We demonstrate the gradual shift from scale-free intermittent microplasticity to a scale-dependent behavior via the introduction of a variety of microstructural features within the Al-Cu binary alloy system. As long as the obstacles to dislocation motion remain shearable, the statistics of intermittent microplasticity has fat-tailed contributions. The introduction of incoherent precipitates leads to a complete transition from scale-free powerlaw scaling to an exponential and scale-dependent distribution. These results demonstrate how non-Gaussian interactions survive across different microstructures and further suggest that characteristic microstructural length scales and obstacle pinning-strengths are of secondary importance for the intermittency statistics, as long as dislocations can shear their local environment.