Microalloying-induced large plasticity in La-Al-C bulk metallic glass

•0.5 at.% element Zr/Mo is added to the La-Al-C BMG.•The plasticity is significantly enhanced via the minor addition.•The beneficial effect is explained by atomic bonding character.

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) generally exhibit poor plastic deformability, especially for rare earth-based BMGs. In this paper, using the microalloying technique, we found that in La-Al-C BMG through the addition of 0.5 at.% element Zr/Mo the plastic strain is significantly improved to 4%/1% from nearly zero under uniaxial compression, and the fracture process changes from rapid fracture to stable fracture. The beneficial effect of Zr/Mo microalloying on the deformation is explained by the atomic bonding character.