Effect of temperature on shear bands and bending plasticity of metallic glasses

We report the effect of testing temperature on the bending plasticity of Pt57.5Cu14.7Ni5.3P22.5 and Zr35Ti30Cu8.25Be26.75 metallic glasses. Bend tests ranging from liquid nitrogen to the glass transition temperature were conducted using a customized setup. The bending strain, the shear band density, and the critical shear offset at fracture decreased with increasing temperature in both the metallic glass formers. The constant strain experiments (without fracture) revealed that low temperature generates more shear bands of smaller lengths to accommodate the same applied strain. The results can be rationalized in terms of temperature dependence predicted by the nucleation and propagation models. •Metallic glasses become more plastic at cryogenic temperatures.•Enhanced plasticity at low temperature is due to increased shear band nucleation.•Temperature effects can be deduced from the shear band dynamics models.•The elastic constants do not predict the temperature dependent plasticity.