Pronounced Plasticity Caused by Phase Separation and β-relaxation Synergistically in Zr–Cu–Al–Mo Bulk Metallic Glasses

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are known to have extraordinary merits such as ultrahigh strength and dynamic toughness etc. but tied to the detrimental brittleness, which has become a critical issue to the engineering application and understanding the glass nature. In this article, we report a new class of Zr-Cu-Al-Mo BMGs with extraordinary plastic strain above 20%. “Work-hardening” effect after yielding in a wide range of plastic deformation process has been detected for this kind of BMGs. Compositional heterogeneity, which can be classified into ZrMo- and Cu-rich zones, was differentiated in this kind of BMG. Pronounced humps have been observed on the high frequency kinetic spectrum in Mo containing BMGs, which is the indicator of β-relaxation transition. The underlying mechanism for the excellent plastic deforming ability of this class of BMGs is ascribed to the synergistic effects of soft ZrMo-rich glass formed through phase separation and abundant flow units which related to β-relaxation.