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We report the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of a medium-entropy alloy, Co17.5Cr12.5Fe55Ni10Mo5 (atomic percent, at%) at cryogenic temperatures, down to a record low temperature of 0.5 K. The alloy exhibits excellent strength and ductility combined with a high strain-hardening rate in the entire temperature range investigated. Its property profile, including the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, strain hardening capability, and absorbed mechanical energy, is better than those of most alloys and HEAs used in cryogenics. Within the interval of extremely low temperatures considered (0.5–4.2 K), the alloy exhibits several unusual features, including anomalies of the temperature dependence of the yield strength and tensile ductility, discontinuous plastic deformation (DPF), and a change in the propensity for the deformation-induced martensitic transformation. While the occurrence of these effects in the same temperature interval may be fortuitous, we hypothesize that they are interrelated and provide a tentative explanation of the observed phenomena on this basis.

Metallic amorphous/crystalline (A/C) nanolaminates exhibit excellent ductility while retaining their high strength. However, the underlying physical mechanisms and the resultant structural changes during plastic deformation still remain unclear. In the present work, the structure-property relationship of CuZr/Cu A/C nanolaminates is established through integrated high-throughput micro-compression tests and molecular dynamics simulations together with high-resolution transmission electron microcopy. The serrated flow of nanolaminates results from the formation of hexagonal-close-packed (HCP)-type stacking faults and twins inside the face-centered-cubic (FCC) Cu nano-grains, the body-centered-cubic (BCC)-type ordering at their grain boundaries, and the crystallization of the amorphous CuZr layers. The serration behavior of CuZr/Cu A/C nanolaminates is determined by several factors, including the formation of dense dislocation networks from the multiplication of initial dislocations that formed after yielding, weak-spots-related configurational-transitions and shear-transition-zone activities, and deformation-induced devitrification. The present work provides an insight into the heterogeneous deformation mechanism of A/C nanolaminates at the atomic scale, and mechanistic base for the microstructural design of self-toughening metallic-glass (MG)-based composites and A/C nanolaminates.

We report an analysis of the discontinuous plastic flow of a multiprincipal-element alloy, ${\mathrm{Co}}_{17.5}{\mathrm{Cr}}_{12.5}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{55}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{10}{\mathrm{Mo}}_{5}$ (atomic percent, at. %), in the temperature range of 0.5--4.2 K showing serrated deformation curves. Using the analytical techniques, we studied the statistics of the stress drops associated with the unstable plastic flow. The analysis showed that the complexity and heterogeneity of a discontinuous plastic flow were reduced when the temperature was lowered. This behavior was associated with the effects of dynamic recovery and adiabatic heating on the dislocation-density evolution.

Contradictory scaling behavior in experiments testing the principle of universality may be due to external oscillations. Thus, the effect of damped oscillatory external forces on slip avalanches in slowly deformed solids is simulated using a mean-field model. Akin to a resonance effect, oscillatory driving forces change the dynamics of avalanches with durations close to the oscillation period. This problem can be avoided by tuning mechanical resonance frequencies away from the range of the inverse avalanche durations. The results provide critical guidance for experimental tests for universality and a quantitative understanding of avalanche dynamics under a wide range of driving conditions.

Serration phenomena during tensile testing on certain alloys with diffusing solute atoms (i.e., Portevin–Le Chatelier effect) have been observed for a long time, but detailed mechanisms are not fully clear yet. This study is intended to find the mechanism from different approaches verified by tensile testing on a series of single-phase face-centered-cubic (FCC) pure metal and alloys: Ni, CoNi, CoFeNi, CoCrFeNi, and CoCrFeMnNi, which range from low to high configurational entropy. The results of tensile tests, at strain rates from 1 × 10−5 to 1 × 10−2/s and temperature from room temperature to 700 °C, show that serrations occur on stress-strain curves of CoFeNi, CoCrFeNi, and CoCrFeMnNi alloys in their specific temperature and strain-rate regime. A mechanism for dislocation pinning is proposed and verified with theoretical calculation for the present substitutional alloys. The proposed mechanism involves the in-situ rearrangement of substitutional solute atoms by “local dislocation-core diffusion” and might also be applied to similar substitutional alloys.

High-sensitivity detection of acoustic emission from granite under uniaxial stress, together with advanced statistical analysis, shows changing collapse mechanisms when a sample is pre-heated. Massive microstructural changes occur at temperatures >500 °C while low-temperature (<

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) possess amorphous structure and show unique mechanical properties, such as extremely high strength and excellent damage tolerance, entitling them as potential structural materials. So far a great amount of work has been conducted to study BMGs’ macroscopic mechanical properties and examine corresponding microscopic deformation defects. However, the connection between macroscopic inhomogeneous deformation at room temperature and microscopic deformation carriers is still poorly understood, due to the lack of an appropriate experimental technique to directly probe the inhomogeneous deformation process on the proper spatial and temporal scales. Here we present the deformation details via in situ thermal imaging about the evolution of heat bands associated with successive serration behavior. For the first time, our experimental work clarifies the coupling of serrated flows with shear band activities, especially the often omitted fine serrations induced by shear band nucleation or the early stage of propagation. Meanwhile, serration behavior of BMGs is simulated through the kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) method by integrating local heating (thermal softening and β-relaxation) effects, which exhibits good agreement with experimental results. These findings will advance our fundamental understanding of the shear band operation down to microscopic level, which may shed light on the control of shear banding for the application of BMGs.

Acoustic emission (AE) measurements of avalanches in different systems, such as domain movements in ferroics or the collapse of voids in porous materials, cannot be compared with model predictions without a detailed analysis of the AE process. In particular, most AE experiments scale the avalanche energy E, maximum amplitude Amax and duration D as E ~ Amaxx and Amax ~ Dχ with x = 2 and a poorly defined power law distribution for the duration. In contrast, simple mean field theory (MFT) predicts that x = 3 and χ = 2. The disagreement is due to details of the AE measurements: the initial acoustic strain signal of an avalanche is modified by the propagation of the acoustic wave, which is then measured by the detector. We demonstrate, by simple model simulations, that typical avalanches follow the observed AE results with x = 2 and ‘half-moon’ shapes for the cross-correlation. Furthermore, the size S of an avalanche does not always scale as the square of the maximum AE avalanche amplitude Amax as predicted by MFT but scales linearly S ~ Amax. We propose that the AE rise time reflects the atomistic avalanche time profile better than the duration of the AE signal.

Recent experiments and simulations of amorphous solids plastically deformed by oscillatory drive have foundsurprising behavior - for small strain amplitudes the dynamics can be reversible, which is contrary to the usual notion of plasticity as an irreversible form of deformation. This reversibility allows the system to reach limit-cycles in which plastic events repeat indefinitely under the oscillatory drive. Reaching reversible limit-cycles, can take a large number of driving cycles and it was surmised that the plastic events encountered during the transient period are not encountered again and are thus irreversible. Using a graph representation of the stable configurations of the system and the plastic events connecting them, we show that the notion of reversibility is more subtle. We find that reversible plastic events are abundant, and that a large portion of the plastic events encountered during the transient period are actually reversible, in the sense that they can be part of a reversible deformation path. We observe that the transition graph can be decomposed into clusters of configurations that are connected by reversible transitions. These clusters are the strongly connected components of the graph and their sizes turn out to be power-law distributed. The largest of these are grouped in regions of reversibility, which in turn are confined by regions of irreversibility whose number proliferates at larger strains. Our results provide an explanation for the irreversibility transition - the divergence of the transient period at a critical forcing amplitude. Long transients result from transition between clusters of reversibility in a search for a cluster large enough to contain a limit-cycle of a specific amplitude. For large enough amplitudes, the search time becomes very large, since sizes of the limit cycles become incompatible with the sizes of the regions of reversibility., 14 pages, 7 figures. Revised version with figures regrouped and two figures added

We have measured magnetic-field-induced avalanches in a square artificial spin ice array of interacting nanomagnets. Starting from the ground state ordered configuration, we imaged the individual nanomagnet moments after each successive application of an incrementally increasing field. The statistics of the evolution of the moment configuration show good agreement with the canonical one-dimensional random field Ising model. We extract information about the microscopic structure of the arrays from our macroscopic measurements of their collective behavior, demonstrating a process that could be applied to other systems exhibiting avalanches.

Uniaxial random field disorder induces a spontaneous transverse magnetization in the XY model. Adding a rotating driving field, we find a critical point attached to the number of driving cycles needed to complete a limit cycle, the first discovery of this phenomenon in a magnetic system. Near the critical drive, time crystal behavior emerges, in which the period of the limit cycles becomes an integer n > 1 multiple of the driving period. The period n can be engineered via specific disorder patterns. Because n generically increases with system size, the resulting period multiplication cascade is reminiscent of that occurring in amorphous solids subject to oscillatory shear near the onset of plastic deformation, and of the period bifurcation cascade near the onset of chaos in nonlinear systems, suggesting it is part of a larger class of phenomena in transitions of dynamical systems. Applications include magnets, electron nematics, and quantum gases., In the XY model, the application of a disordered uniaxial magnetic field leads to a long range magnetic order. Here, using a numerical approach, the authors find that at a critical rotating driving field, the number of driving cycles needed to complete a limit cycle diverges.

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, possesses extraordinary mechanical properties resulting from its intriguing hierarchical brick-and-mortar microstructures. Despite prior studies, interactions between nanoasperities during sliding still need to be elucidated. In this study, we measure slip events between nanograins of microlayers at high temporal resolution during torsion-induced sliding. We model the slips as avalanches caused by interactions of atoms on nanograin surfaces, from which power laws and scaling functions describing statistics and dynamics of slip events are studied. The largest avalanche occurs when nanograins leave each other after the maximum contact. The agreement between measurements and predictions shows that avalanches act essentially in the inhomogeneous sliding of nacreous tablets. Further insights into nanofriction provided in this work may lead to the development of nanoscale tribological systems.

The explanation and control of phase transitions remain cornerstones of contemporary physics. Landau provided an invaluable insight into the thermodynamics of complex systems by formulating their phase transitions in terms of an order parameter. Within this formulation, continuous evolution of the order parameter away from zero classifies the phase transition as second-order, whereas a discontinuous change signals a first-order transition. Here we show that the temperature-tuned insulator–metal transition in the prototypical correlated electron system NdNiO3 defies this established binary classification. By harnessing a nanoscale optical probe of the local electronic conductivity, we reveal two physically distinct yet concurrent phase transitions in epitaxial NdNiO3 films. Whereas the sample bulk exhibits a first-order transition between metal and insulator phases, we resolve anomalous nanoscale domain walls in the insulating state that undergo a distinctly continuous insulator–metal transition, with hallmarks of second-order behaviour. We ascribe these domain walls to boundaries between antiferromagnetically ordered domains within the charge ordered bulk. The close correspondence of these observations to predictions from a Landau theory of coupled charge and magnetic orders highlights the importance of coupled order parameters in driving the complex phase transition in NdNiO3. A phase transition between metallic and insulating states is observed to simultaneously happen in two ways at once. The bulk of the sample shows an instantaneous jump in the conductivity, while 1D domain walls show a slow switching into a metallic state.

Discrete stress relaxations (slip avalanches) in a model metallic glass under uniaxial compression are studied using a metadynamics algorithm for molecular simulation at experimental strain rates. The onset of yielding is observed at the first major stress drop, accompanied, upon analysis, by the formation of a single localized shear band region spanning the entire system. During the elastic response prior to yielding, low concentrations of shear transformation deformation events appear intermittently and spatially uncorrelated. During serrated flow following yielding, small stress drops occur interspersed between large drops. The simulation results point to a threshold value of stress dissipation as a characteristic feature separating major and minor avalanches consistent with mean-field modeling analysis and mechanical testing experiments. We further interpret this behavior to be a consequence of a nonlinear interplay of two prevailing mechanisms of amorphous plasticity, thermally activated atomic diffusion and stress-induced shear transformations, originally proposed by Spaepen and Argon, respectively. Probing the atomistic processes at widely separate strain rates gives insight to different modes of shear band formation: percolation of shear transformations versus crack-like propagation. Additionally a focus on crossover avalanche size has implications for nanomechanical modeling of spatially and temporally heterogeneous dynamics.

Compression experiments of the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloy (HEA) under displacement control were conducted at different temperatures ranging from 673 K to 873 K with a strain rate of 5 × 10−5/s to study its serration behavior. Samples after compression tests were investigated, using the synchrontron-diffraction technique and transmission-electron microscopy. By comparing the stress-strain curves at different temperatures, two opposite directions of serrations were observed, named the upward serration appearing at 573 K and 673 K and the downward serration at 773 K and 873 K. The different directions of serrations were discussed in terms of not only the relationships among the stress vs. strain, stress vs. time, and strain vs. time, but also the interactions among dislocations, atoms, and nanoparticles. Finally, the temperature effect on the flow serration is discussed by referring to a theoretical framework for the initiation of the serrated flow. Beyond a critical high temperature, the initiation of the serrated flow becomes swiftly difficult, and ultimately the plastic flow in the full deformation range turns smooth. The theoretical prediction of the normal behavior is essentially in qualitative agreement with the experimental observation in the present work, i.e., the critical strain to initiate the serration decreases with increasing the temperature.

Systems of interacting nanomagnets known as artificial spin ice1–4 have allowed the design, realization and study of geometrically frustrated exotic collective states5–10 that are absent in natural magnets. We have experimentally measured11,12 the thermally induced moment fluctuations in the Shakti geometry of artificial spin ice. We show that its disordered moment configuration is a topological phase described by an emergent dimer-cover model13 with excitations that can be characterized as topologically charged defects. Examination of the low-energy dynamics of the system confirms that these effective topological charges have long lifetimes associated with their topological protection, that is, they can be created and annihilated only as charge pairs with opposite sign and are kinetically constrained. This manifestation of classical topological order14–19 demonstrates that geometrical design in nanomagnetic systems can lead to emergent, topologically protected kinetics that can limit pathways to equilibration and ergodicity. Experiments on the Shakti geometry of artificial spin ice show that its low-energy excitations are topologically protected, and that an emergent classical topological order influences the ergodicity and equilibration of this nanomagnetic system.

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) demonstrate different deformation behavior under varying loading conditions. In the present work, a Zr57Cu20Al10Ni8Ti5 (atomic percent, at.%) BMG was subjected to a mixed-mode (I/II) loading condition by tailoring double-side notches. The findings show stable plastic-flow plateau stages in the loading-displacement curves, and this phenomenon is different from other notched BMG specimens with predominant-mode-I failure. More importantly, due to the stress concentrations between two notches, most of the slip events with large load drops occur on the fracture plane, resulting in a wide smooth region consisting of several shear steps on the fracture surface. We show that despite different deformation behavior, the specimens still display slip-size statistics of the plastic flow, which are similar to those seen in compression tests. The present findings give more insight into the deformation behavior/mechanisms of BMGs under varying loading conditions for practical structural applications.

Fatigue failures cost approximately 4% of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP). The design of highly fatigue-resistant materials is always in demand. Different from conventional strategies of alloy design, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are defined as materials with five or more principal elements, which could be solid solutions. This locally-disordered structure is expected to lead to unique fatigue-resistant properties. In this review, the studies of the fatigue behavior of HEAs during the last five years are summarized. The four-point-bending high-cycle fatigue coupled with statistical modelling, and the fatigue-crack-growth behavior of HEAs, are reviewed. The effects of sample defects and nanotwins-deformation mechanisms on four-point-bending high-cycle fatigue of HEAs are discussed in detail. The influence of stress ratio and temperature on fatigue-crack-growth characteristics of HEAs is also discussed. HEAs could exhibit comparable or greater fatigue properties, relative to conventional materials. Finally, the possible future work regarding the fatigue behavior of HEAs is suggested.

Serration and noise behaviors in plastically deforming solids are related to avalanches of deformation processes. In the stress-strain curves, the serration characteristics are visible as stress drops or strain jumps. In fact, similar serration characteristics are ubiquitous in many structural and functional materials, such as amorphous materials [also metallic glasses, or bulk metallic glasses (BMGs)], high-entropy alloys (HEAs), superalloys, ordered intermetallics, shape-memory alloys (SMAs), electrochemical noise, carbon steels, twinning-induced plasticity steels (TWIP steels), phase-transformation-induced plasticity steels (TRIP steels), Al-Mg alloys, nano-materials, magnetic functional materials, and so on. Because of their unique and universal properties, many researchers have focused on this field to find out what causes the serration behaviors and what can be learned about the material from the serration characteristics. For example, the serration characteristics contain information about the mechanisms of plastic deformation and the structural evolution during deformation. However, due to many factors affecting the serration behavior and some uncertain or uncontrolled factors, it’s a difficult task to give a unified picture of a vast amount of serration data. This review article summarizes the results of previous studies in this rapidly-developing field, attempting to provide a new perspective in expounding the connection between macroscopic properties and micro-mechanisms. In this review paper, serration behavior of a wide range of materials will be discussed. One of the most important goals is to investigate the factors influencing serration characteristics and deformation mechanisms. Several statistical properties, such as distributions of stress drop sizes and waiting times, are reviewed and used to quantify the serration behavior. Moreover, models and theories on the serrated flow will be discussed, which quantify the deformation mechanism and provide physical intuition for the experiments, and methods to organize experimental data. Besides discussing serrations in stress-strain curves of many solid materials, this review paper will also cover other systems with serrations and collective noise, such as crackling noise in the earth’s crust (earthquakes), volume fluctuations in a granular medium and jamming behavior in random-packing systems.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs), as a new class of materials, are nearly equiatomic and multi-element systems, which can crystallize as a single phase or multi-phases. Most of the HEAs described in the literature contain multiple phases (secondary phases, nanoparticles, and so on), rather than a single solid-solution phase. Thus, it is essential to review the typical mechanical properties of both single-phase and multiphase HEAs thoroughly, with emphases on (1) the fundamental physical mechanisms and (2) the difference from conventional alloys. In this paper, mainly based on different mechanical properties, HEAs are classified into four types for the first time, i.e., (a) HEA alloy systems of 3d-transition metals only (Type 1), (b) HEA alloy systems of transition metals with larger atomic-radius elements (Type 2), (c) HEA alloy systems of refractory metals (Type 3), and (4) others (Type 4). Then a number of aspects of mechanical behavior are reviewed and discussed, including the elastic anisotropy, yield strength, high-temperature performance, serration behavior, fracture toughness, and fatigue responses, which may serve as a demonstrative summary for the current progress in the scientific research of HEAs. Several mechanisms that quantitatively explain the mechanical properties of single-phase and multiphase HEAs in terms of basic defects (dislocations, twinning, precipitates, etc.) are discussed. A number of future research activities are suggested, based on the emphasis on developing high-performance structural materials. The review concludes with a brief summary of major mechanical properties and insights into the deformation behavior of single-phase and multiphase HEAs. The comparison and contrast between HEAs and conventional alloys remain the most compelling motivation for future studies. With the integrated experimental and simulation investigations, a clearer picture of the fundamental deformation behavior of single-phase and multiphase HEAs could be explored.

Refractory high-entropy alloys present attractive mechanical properties, i.e., high yield strength and fracture toughness, making them potential candidates for structural applications. Understandings of atomic and electronic interactions are important to reveal the origins for the formation of high-entropy alloys and their structure−dominated mechanical properties, thus enabling the development of a predictive approach for rapidly designing advanced materials. Here, we report the atomic and electronic basis for the valence−electron-concentration-categorized principles and the observed serration behavior in high-entropy alloys and high-entropy metallic glass, including MoNbTaW, MoNbVW, MoTaVW, HfNbTiZr, and Vitreloy-1 MG (Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5). We find that the yield strengths of high-entropy alloys and high-entropy metallic glass are a power-law function of the electron-work function, which is dominated by local atomic arrangements. Further, a reliance on the bonding-charge density provides a groundbreaking insight into the nature of loosely bonded spots in materials. The presence of strongly bonded clusters and weakly bonded glue atoms imply a serrated deformation of high-entropy alloys, resulting in intermittent avalanches of defects movement. A cluster-and-glue model of atomic arrangements explains the yield strength and mechanical response of high entropy alloys. Inspired by metallic glass, a team led by William Yi Wang at China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University and collaborators in the United States of America used molecular dynamics to build different atomic arrangements of refractory high entropy alloys consisting of four or more elements. Depending on atomic size and the periodic table group of each atom, some atoms organized into clusters while others glued the clusters together. Chemical bonds broke and formed with plastic deformation as the alloys went from one atomic arrangement to another via the glue atoms, causing defect avalanches explaining the serrated mechanical response of high entropy alloys. Taking into account atomic arrangement may thus help us predict the properties of high entropy alloys.

The present work investigates the influence of Al-content and potential-scan-rate on stable/metastable pitting of Al xCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys in a 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. The increased Al content causes the volume fraction of the Cr-depleted phase to increase, resulting in thicker/dispersive passive films that degrade the localized corrosion resistance. The varied stable/metastable pitting behavior under different potential scan rates indicates that pit generation is influenced by the properties of passive films and the interactions between chloride ions and the active sites. Furthermore, a mean-field theory is employed to predict the scan-rate dependent, power-law distribution of current fluctuations.

The statistical and dynamic behaviors of the displacement-load curves of a high-entropy alloy, Al0.5 CoCrCuFeNi, were analyzed for the nanoindentation performed at two temperatures. Critical behavior of serrations at room temperature and chaotic flows at 200 °C were detected. These results are attributed to the interaction among a large number of slip bands. For the nanoindentation at room temperature, recurrent partial events between slip bands introduce a hierarchy of length scales, leading to a critical state. For the nanoindentation at 200 °C, there is no spatial interference between two slip bands, which is corresponding to the evolution of separated trajectory of chaotic behavior.

Intermittent serrated flows of a novel ductile Fe60Ni20P13C7 bulk metallic glass (BMG) at variant strain rates were investigated by statistics analysis. Peak and clutter distribution of slip-avalanche magnitudes are displayed during stable plastic flows at strain rates of 2×10−4 s−1 and 5×10−5 s−1, respectively, which means that serration behavior depends on the strain rate. However, the remarkable agreement between measured slip-avalanche magnitudes and the scaling behavior, i. e. a universal complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) predicted by mean-field theory (MFT) model, indicates that the plasticity of the present Fe-based BMGs can be tuned by imposed strain rates: $${S_{\max }} \sim {\dot \varepsilon ^{ - \lambda }}$$ . This tuned plasticity is elucidated with expended free-volume model. Moreover, the scaling behavior of serrated flows for other strain rates can be predicted as well.

The flow of granular materials and metallic glasses is governed by strongly correlated, avalanche-like deformation. Recent comparisons focused on the scaling regimes of the small avalanches, where strong similarities were found in the two systems. Here, we investigate the regime of large avalanches by computing the temporal profile or “shape” of each one, i.e., the time derivative of the stress-time series during each avalanche. We then compare the experimental statistics and dynamics of these shapes in granular media and bulk metallic glasses. We complement the experiments with a mean-field model that predicts a critical size beyond which avalanches turn into large runaway events. We find that this transition is reflected in a characteristic change of the peak width of the avalanche profile from broad to narrow, and we introduce a new metric for characterizing this dynamic change. The comparison of the two systems points to the same deformation mechanism in both metallic glasses and granular materials.

The statistics and form of avalanches in a driven system reveal the nature of the underlying energy landscape and dynamics. In conventional metallic ferromagnets, eddy-current back action can dominate the dynamics. Here, we study Barkhausen noise in Li(Ho,Y)F4, an insulating Ising ferromagnet that cannot sustain eddy currents. For large avalanches at temperatures approaching the Curie point, we find a symmetric response free of drag effects. In the low temperature limit, drag effects contribute to the dynamics, which we link to enhanced pinning from local random fields that are enabled by the microscopic dipole-coupled Hamiltonian (the Ising model in transverse field)., 14 pages, 3 figures

Shear banding causes deformation to be heavily restricted in small volumes of a material, leading to catastrophic failure of materials. Yet how shear bands form is generally not known. Here, the authors follow the entire process of shear banding in the nanocrystalline ceramic (NCC) nanopillars of ZrN using $i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n$ $s\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}u$ microscopy. The evidence obtained shows that the nanopillars deform through intermittent granular activities due to the nucleation and propagation of dislocations. The stress drops associated with these activities, however, are small as dislocation avalanches are restricted by the nanograin size. Shear band forms in NCC through localized and cooperative granular activities involving nanocrack formation.

The transition from elastic to plastic deformation in crystalline metals shares history dependence and scale-invariant avalanche signature with other non-equilibrium systems under external loading: dilute colloidal suspensions, plastically-deformed amorphous solids, granular materials, and dislocation-based simulations of crystals. These other systems exhibit transitions with clear analogies to work hardening and yield stress, with many typically undergoing purely elastic behavior only after 'training' through repeated cyclic loading; studies in these other systems show a power law scaling of the hysteresis loop extent and of the training time as the peak load approaches a so-called reversible-irreversible transition (RIT). We discover here that deformation of small crystals shares these key characteristics: yielding and hysteresis in uniaxial compression experiments of single-crystalline Cu nano- and micro-pillars decay under repeated cyclic loading. The amplitude and decay time of the yield precursor avalanches diverge as the peak stress approaches failure stress for each pillar, with a power law scaling virtually equivalent to RITs in other nonequilibrium systems., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We consider the slow and athermal deformations of amorphous solids and show how the ensuing sequence of discrete plastic rearrangements can be mapped onto a directed network. The network topology reveals a set of highly connected regions joined by occasional one-way transitions. The highly connected regions include hierarchically organized hysteresis cycles and sub-cycles. At small to moderate strains this organization leads to near-perfect return point memory. The transitions in the network can be traced back to localized particle rearrangements (soft-spots) that interact via Eshelby-type deformation fields. By linking topology to dynamics, the network representations provides new insights into the mechanisms that lead to reversible and irreversible behavior in amorphous solids., 5 pages, 4 figures. Minor changes, addition of of ancillary file providing numerical implementation details and supporting evidence

The origin of deterministic macroscopic properties often lies in microscopic stochastic motion. Magnetic fluctuations that manifest as domain avalanches and chaotic magnetization jumps exemplify such stochastic motion and have been studied in great detail. Here we report Fourier space studies of avalanches in a system exhibiting competing magnetic stripe and skyrmion phase using a soft X-ray speckle metrology technique. We demonstrate the existence of phase boundaries and underlying critical points in the stripe and skyrmion phases. We found that distinct scaling and universality classes are associated with these domain topologies. The magnitude and frequency of abrupt magnetic domain jumps observed in the stripe phase are dramatically reduced in the skyrmion phase. Our results provide an incisive way to probe and understand phase stability in systems exhibiting complex spin topologies., Switching of magnetic materials often occurs through discrete random avalanches. Singh et al. observe sharply reduced avalanches in the topologically protected skyrmion phase of a Fe/Gd heterostructure and obtain different critical behaviour in the stripe and skyrmion phases, suggesting distinct universality classes.

Deformation mechanisms of a high-entropy alloy with a single face-centered-cubic phase, Al0.1CoCrFeNi, at elevated temperatures are studied to explore the high temperature performances of high-entropy alloys. Tensile tests at a strain rate of 10−4 s−1 are performed at different temperatures ranging from 25 to 700 °C. While both yield strength and ultimate tensile strength decrease with increasing temperature, the maximum elongation to fracture occurred at 500 °C. Transmission electron microscopy characterizations reveal that, at both 25 and 500 °C, most of deformation occurs by dislocation glide on the normal face-centered-cubic slip system, {111}〈110〉. In contrast, numerous stacking faults are observed at 600 and 700 °C, accompanied by the decreasing of dislocation density, which are attributed to the motion of Shockley partials and the dissociation of dislocations, respectively. According to the Considere's criterion, it is assumed that the dissociation of dislocations and movement of Shockley partials at higher temperatures significantly decreases the work hardening during tensile tests, promoting the early onset of necking instability and decreasing the high-temperature ductility.

The origin of the deformation in metallic glasses is attributed to rearrangements of atoms in some structurally weak spots behaving as flow units, which are associated with free volumes. In the present study, Xe-ion beam is used to manipulate the free-volume fraction, and influence on the mechanical behavior of a Zr-based metallic glass. The irradiation at low dosages can change the structure by increasing the free volume, and by homogenising the distribution of free volume. The increase in the free-volume fraction is equivalent to the increase in the deformation temperature, thus resulting in the decrease in the yield strength. The analysis of stochastic strain burst size in the metallic glass irradiated at different dosages indicates that the strain burst depends on the yield strength and homogeneity of the glassy phase. The results of this study highlight the fact that the quantitative manipulation of the homogeneity and the amount of free volumes can be achieved through low-dose ion irradiation, which can modify the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses.

Ferroelectric-field switching in $\mathrm{BaTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ generates ``Barkhausen noise'' when domain walls are displaced. We show by acoustic emission spectroscopy that electric-field switching of ${90}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ boundaries generates large strain fields, which emit acoustic phonons during ferroelectric hysteresis measurements. We use highly sensitive receivers (microphones) to measure the time sequences of noise in close analogy to noise patterns in ferroelastic and magnetic materials. Domain-wall interactions and jamming generate the ``crackling noise'' that follows scale invariant avalanche dynamics: the avalanche energy and amplitude probability distribution functions follow power laws with exponents $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}=1.65$ (energy) and \ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{'} = 2.25 (amplitudes). Aftershocks are very common and follow Omori law with probability $\ensuremath{\sim}{t}^{\ensuremath{-}p}$ where $t$ is the time elapsed after the main shock and $p$ is the Omori exponent $p\ensuremath{\sim}1$. The interevent times follow a double power-law distribution with exponents 0.9 for small times and 2.2 for the larger times. The scaling behavior is consistent with predictions of mean field theory.