Metallic Glasses and Amorphous Alloys

Metallic glasses are metal alloys cooled fast enough from the melt that their atoms freeze into a disordered, non-crystalline arrangement rather than forming the regular lattice found in conventional metals. This amorphous structure gives them exceptional strength and elasticity, but it also concentrates plastic deformation into narrow regions called shear bands, which can propagate catastrophically and limit how much a material can deform before fracturing. Researchers are working to understand what governs a composition's glass-forming ability — that is, how easily it avoids crystallization during processing — and how controlled nanocrystallization within the amorphous matrix can interrupt shear band propagation and improve toughness. A central open challenge is designing bulk metallic glasses that retain their high strength while achieving the kind of reliable, widespread plasticity needed for structural engineering applications.

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Keywords

Bulk Metallic GlassesAmorphous AlloysMechanical BehaviorGlass Forming AbilityShear BandsNanocrystallization