Shear-banding Induced Indentation Size Effect in Metallic Glasses

Shear-banding is commonly regarded as the “plasticity carrier” of metallic glasses (MGs), which usually causes severe strain localization and catastrophic failure if unhindered. However, through the use of the high-throughput dynamic nanoindentation technique, here we reveal that nano-scale shear-banding in different MGs evolves from a “distributed” fashion to a “localized” mode when the resultant plastic flow extends over a critical length scale. Consequently, a pronounced indentation size effect arises from the distributed shear-banding but vanishes when shear-banding becomes localized. Based on the critical length scales obtained for a variety of MGs, we unveil an intrinsic interplay between elasticity and fragility that governs the nanoscale plasticity transition in MGs. Our current findings provide a quantitative insight into the indentation size effect and transition mechanisms of nano-scale plasticity in MGs.