Abstract
Local heterogeneities in the structure and properties of metallic glasses have recently been predicted by computer simulations and also observed in experiments. These heterogeneities are important in understanding the stability and performance of metallic glasses. Progress has been made in measuring heterogeneities in elastic properties and local density down to length scales of less than 10 nm. In this review, we focus on studies of structural and mechanical heterogeneities with emphasis on those achieved by transmission electron microscopy which has an excellent spatial resolution, multifunctional detection modes, as well as in-situ testing capabilities. We argue that the next important step in understanding the behavior of metallic glasses lies in understanding the spatial and temporal correlations between the various structural and mechanical heterogeneities.
Highlights
Structure determination has been a key topic in many scientific research fields from materials science to biology, and from inorganic materials to organic materials
Beyond the feature of missing long-range order, the amorphous structure of Metallic glasses (MGs) has been found to be heterogeneous rather than homogenous [5,6]. Both structure and mechanical properties have been found to be different in different regions of MGs on length scales ranging from the nanoscale to the microscale [7]
The statistical distribution of interatomic distances in MG can be represented by a radial distribution function (RDF) [17] with which the first, second and even higher order nearest neighbours are defined using certain radius cut-offs
Summary
Structure determination has been a key topic in many scientific research fields from materials science to biology, and from inorganic materials to organic materials. Beyond the feature of missing long-range order, the amorphous structure of MGs has been found to be heterogeneous rather than homogenous [5,6]. Both structure and mechanical properties have been found to be different in different regions of MGs on length scales ranging from the nanoscale to the microscale [7]. Identifying key descriptors of local spatial or temporal heterogeneities may open a new path to understand the structure-properties relations of MGs. The distribution of heterogeneities [8], their size [12] or correlation length [13], and the time scale of their evolution [11] under stimuli like strain and heating are important subjects that need comprehensive studies. The current and potential applications of TEM in the study of heterogeneities in MGs will be discussed
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