Structural perspectives on the elastic and mechanical properties of metallic glasses

The flow units of glasses are generally perceived to be a local rearrangement of atoms that are microstructural origin for plastic deformation and relaxations in metallic glasses. We find a relationship of the effective concentration of flow units and some properties such as elastic moduli, micro-hardness and plasticity of metallic glasses. The relationship helps in understanding the softening phenomenon, structural heterogeneous, evolution process of flow units, and widespread mechanical behavior of metallic glasses and can reveal the essential structural mechanism of the Poisson's ratio criterion for plasticity in metallic glasses. The relationship also indicates that the flow unit is a key structural parameter for understanding and controlling the properties and the performance of metallic glasses.