Training β relaxation to rejuvenate metallic glasses

In the current work, we demonstrated that the rejuvenation of metallic glasses can be achieved through training the β relaxation process. With the increase in the training frequency, a transition from structural relaxation to rejuvenation can be observed. This rejuvenation treatment is unexpected due to it occurs at a relatively small cyclic strain of 0.2%. Rejuvenation is beneficial to increase the relaxation enthalpy and promotes the decoupling of the β relaxation process and α relaxation process. A cluster of β relaxation time curves are formulated to describe any energetic state between ultrastable and ultimately rejuvenated metallic glasses. In addition, rejuvenation expands the distribution of β relaxation process, anelastic and viscoplastic components during the deformation process. © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.