Deformation behavior of Fe-based bulk metallic glass during nanoindentation

Fe-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) normally exhibit super high strength but significant brittleness at ambient temperature. Therefore,it is difficult to investigate the plastic deformation behavior and mechanism in these alloys through conven-tional tensile and compressive tests due to lack of distinct macroscopic plastic strain. In this work,the deformation behavior of Fe52Cr15Mo9Er3C15B6 BMG was in-vestigated through instrumented nanoindentation and uniaxial compressive tests. The results show that serrated flow,the typical plastic deformation feature of BMGs,could not be found in as-cast and partially crystallized samples during nanoinden-tation. In addition,the deformation behavior and mechanical properties of the alloy are insensitive to the applied loading rate. The mechanism for the appearance of the peculiar deformation behavior in the Fe-based BMG is discussed in terms of the temporal and spatial characteristics of shear banding during nanoindentation.