A single shear band in a metallic glass: Local core and wide soft zone

Two dimensional mapping of structural properties near a single shear band in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass reveals the presence of hardness and modulus reductions at a micrometer length scale. The isolated shear band had carried all the macroscopic plastic strain and the material near the shear-band exhibits structural variations both along and normal to the shear plane. Analyzing the nanoindentation data indicates that long range internal stresses are the primary cause of the spatially varying structure. The results demonstrate that a nano-scale defect in a metallic glass may have a micrometer range signature.