Vibration-accelerated activation of flow units in a Pd-based bulk metallic glass

Controlled activation of flow units and in-situ characterization of mechanical properties in metallic glasses are facing challenges thus far. Here, vibrational loading is introduced through nanoscale dynamic mechanical analysis technique to probe vibration-accelerated atomic level flow that plays a crucial role in the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses. The intriguing finding is that high vibrational frequency induces deep indentation depth, prominent pop-in events on load-depth curves and low storage modulus, exhibiting a vibration-facilitated activation of flow units in Pd40Cu30Ni10P20 metallic glass. Theoretical analysis revealed that vibration-moderated activation time-scale accelerate the activation of flow units and responsible for the above scenario.