Amorphous physics and materials: Secondary relaxation and dynamic heterogeneity in metallic glasses: A brief review

Understanding mechanical relaxation, such as primary ( and secondary (relaxation, is key to unravel the intertwined relation between the atomic dynamics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics in metallic glasses. At a fundamental level, relaxation, plastic deformation, glass transition and crystallization of metallic glasses are intimately linked to each other, which can be related to atomic packing, inter-atomic diffusion and cooperative atom movement. Conceptually, relaxation is usually associated with structural heterogeneities intrinsic to metallic glasses.