Serrated flow behavior in a Pd-based bulk metallic glass under nanoindentation

This study presents the investigation on the serrated flow behavior of a Pd-based bulk metallic glass under nanoindentation. Firstly, a method of curve-fitting and statistical analysis was proposed that found to successfully extract the serration events from the deformation of bulk metallic glasses during nanoindentation. Then the serrated flow at various loading rates were systematically analyzed by using the proposed method. The results showed that the lower loading rates promote the serrated flow, while the individual serration was more likely to be triggered at higher loading rates. Combined with the intrinsic micromechanism of bulk metallic glasses, we conjectured the serrated flow features may be attributed to the evolution of liquid-like region in bulk metallic glasses.