Correlation between hardness and shear banding of metallic glasses under nanoindentation

Shear banding is an important factor affecting the mechanical properties of metallic glasses. This paper decodes the relationship between hardness and shear banding illustrated by displacement bursts under nanoindentation. Both strain softening caused by shear banding and strain hardening after shear banding contribute to the hardness. It was concluded that randomly distributed large sized displacement bursts lead to more intense straining hardening and therefore a higher hardness increase than the uniformly distributed small sized bursts.