Inherent strength of zirconium-based bulk metallic glass

Abstract The polycluster morphology and inherent tensile strength of bulk metallic glass Zr 41 Ti 14 Cu 12.5 Ni 10 Be 22.5 in the as-cast state were determined by means of high-field mechanical loading using field ion microscopy. The two-level cluster structure with the length scale of the order of 2 and 10 nm was revealed. It was disclosed that the strength of this alloy is characterized by a strong size-effect in a nanometer scale range. It is shown that within this size region the Weibull distribution is not suitable to describe the scale effect. It is ascertained that the limit level of shear strength of the examined glass is 5.8 GPa, and shear strength of a separate cluster may be estimated as 6.7 GPa.