Deformation of metallic glasses: Insight from in-situ high- energy x-ray diffraction

The most notable property of bulk metallic glasses is their ultrahigh (near theoretical) strength and hardness. Because many of known BMGs miss tensile plasticity and thus exhibit catastrophic failure upon tension it is of great importance to understand deformation mechanisms involved and thus improve their performance. Time-resolved in-situ x-ray diffraction experiments may nowadays be performed at high-brilliance synchrotron radiation sources for a variety of conditions. An example is provided, concerning mapping of the strain distribution in tensile stressed Zr-based BMG by in-situ hard x-ray diffraction.