Structural relaxation driven increase in elastic modulus for a bulk metallic glass

The change in elastic modulus as a function of temperature was investigated for a zirconium-based bulk metallic glass. High temperature nano-indentation was done over a wide temperature range from room temperature to the glass-transition. At higher temperature, there was a transition from inhomogeneous to homogeneous deformation, with a decrease in serrated flow and an increase in creep displacement. Hardness was found to decrease, whereas elastic modulus was found to increase with temperature. The increase in elastic modulus for metallic glass at higher temperature was explained by diffusive rearrangement of atoms resulting in free volume annihilation. This is in contrast to elastic modulus increase with temperature for silicate glasses due to compaction of its open three dimensional coordinated structure without any atomic diffusion.