Communication: Non-monotonic evolution of dynamical heterogeneity in unfreezing process of metallic glasses

J Chem Phys. 2015 Jul 28;143(4):041104. doi: 10.1063/1.4927701.

Abstract

The relaxation dynamics in unfreezing process of metallic glasses is investigated by the activation-relaxation technique. A non-monotonic dynamical microstructural heterogeneities evolution with temperature is discovered, which confirms and supplies more features to flow units concept of glasses. A flow unit perspective is proposed to microscopically describe this non-monotonic evolution of the dynamical heterogeneities as well as its relationship with the deformation mode development of metallic glasses.