Structural evolution of Cu–Zr metallic glasses under tension

The structural behaviour of Cu50Zr50 and Cu65Zr35 metallic glasses under uniaxial tensile stress was investigated in situ by high-energy X-ray synchrotron diffraction. The components of the elastic strain tensor were determined from both the change of positions of first maximum of the structure factor in reciprocal space as well as from the maxima of the atomic pair correlation function in real space. The atomic scale strain agrees with the macroscopic strain values. The topological and chemical short-range order of the Cu–Zr glasses changes upon loading. The number density of Cu–Zr and Zr–Zr nearest neighbour atomic pair becomes oriented along the loading direction whereas the partial nearest neighbour distances are only weakly influenced.