Understanding the deformation behavior of metallic and nanoglasses through indentation

Abstract

This work investigates the Shear band morphology of a binary Pd80Si20 nanoglass (NG) and metallic glass (MG) using bonded interface indentation technique. The results clearly indicate that the plastic strain in the subsurface deformation zone in NG is accommodated by very fine secondary shear bands in addition to fewer primary shear bands, while in MG, it is mainly by primary shear bands. Furthermore, at any given indentation load, the size of the normalized subsurface deformation zone, χ, is found to be higher for NG compared to MG, suggesting that the deformation of Pd80Si20 NG is more pressure sensitive and softer than MG. These differences in deformation characteristics between the NG and MG are closely related to the intrinsic differences in the glass structure*.