Soft spots and their structural signature in a metallic glass

Jun Ding, Sylvain Patinet, Michael L. Falk, Yongqiang Cheng, Evan Ma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

358 Scopus citations

Abstract

In a 3Dmodel mimicking realistic Cu64Zr36metallic glass, we uncovered a direct link between the quasi-localized low-frequency vibrational modes and the local atomic packing structure. We also demonstrate that quasi-localized soft modes correlate strongly with fertile sites for shear transformations: geometrically unfavored motifs constitute the most flexible local environments that encourage soft modes and high propensity for shear transformations, whereas local configurations preferred in this alloy, i.e., the full icosahedra (around Cu) and Z16 Kasper polyhedra (around Zr), contribute the least.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14052-14056
Number of pages5
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume111
Issue number39
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 30 2014

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science FoundationDMR-1107838
National Science Foundation1107838

    Keywords

    • Heterogeneity
    • Liquid-like regions
    • Shear transformation zones
    • Structure-property relationship
    • Uncommon motifs

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