A microscopic mechanism for steady state inhomogeneous flow in metallic glasses

Abstract An empirical deformation map for metallic glasses is introduced and the two modes of deformation, homogeneous and inhomogeneous flow are reviewed. The microscopic mechanism for steady state inhomogeneous flow is based on a dynamic equilibrium between stress-driven creation and diffusional annihilation of structural disorder. The formalism is developed using the free volume as the order parameter. The boundary line between the homogeneous and inhomogeneous flow regions on the deformation map is calculated. The stress-strain relation in inhomogeneous flow approaches ideally plastic behavior.