Critical size and strength of the best bulk metallic glass former in the Mg–Cu–Gd ternary system

We have developed a Mg61Cu28Gd11 bulk metallic glass (BMG) that has the highest glass-forming ability among all the known ternary Mg-based BMGs. We also used a microcompression test to determine the intrinsic strength of such brittle Mg-based BMGs. The strength and plasticity of BMGs at small sample sizes are discussed in comparison with their behavior in conventional compression tests.