Rejuvenation of a naturally aged bulk metallic glass by elastostatic loading

Rejuvenation of a naturally aged Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 bulk metallic glass (BMG) can be achieved by laterally elastostatic pre-loading. The serration flow of the rejuvenated BMG shows a bimodal fashion, in which smaller serrations and larger serrations emerge alternately. Both coarse and a large number of fine shear bands, with strong interactions among themselves, coexist in the rejuvenated BMG. More pronounced β relaxation of the rejuvenated BMG indicates that the bimodal patterns of serration flows and shear bands can be attributed to elastostatically induced a more heterogeneous structure.