Mechanical heterogeneity and its relation with glass-forming ability in Zr-Cu and Zr-Cu-Al metallic glasses

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation using a spherical indenter were adopted to quantitatively probe the local mechanical heterogeneity (MH) in Zr-Cu and Zr-Cu-Al metallic glasses. Distinct MH at the nanometer scale has been revealed by statistically analyzing the first pop-in stress of different regions in the metallic glasses with an indenter of 4 nm in diameter. More interestingly, it is found that the degree of MH has a close relation to glass-forming ability of alloys, i.e., the smaller MH, the better glass-forming ability. Our findings not only shed light on the intrinsic feature of atomic structures, but also have important implications in understanding the structure-property relationship of MGs.