Length scale dependent plasticity of amorphous/amorphous NiNb/ZrCuNiALSI nanolaminates

Abstract Individual layer thickness dependent mechanical properties of amorphous/amorphous NiNb/ZrCuNiAlSi nanolaminates were evaluated via nanoindentation testing. While hardness only slightly increases, the magnitude of pile-up around residual indentation was estimated to be effectively decreased at reduced individual layer thickness. By ruling out the effect of the ratio of effective elastic modulus over yield strength of the multilayers, the variation trend of pile-up may attribute to the high capacity of work hardening derived from decreasing the layer thickness. The mechanism behind the enhanced work hardening of the amorphous composites was proposed, and may path a new way to fabricate metallic glasses with improved plasticity.