Effectiveness of a second phase in metallic glass heterostructures to improve mechanical properties varies widely. Unfortunately, methods to fabricate such heterostructures like foams and composites do not allow controlled variation of structural features. Here we report a novel strategy, which allows us to vary heterostructural features independently, thereby enabling a systematic and quantitative study. Our approach reveals the optimal microstructural architecture for metallic glass heterostructures to achieve tensile ductility. Critical design aspect is a soft second phase, which is most effective when spacing between the second phase assumes the critical crack length of the metallic glass. This spacing should coincide with the second phase’s size, and beyond, the specific second phase morphology of the heterostructure is crucial. These toughening strategies are only effective in samples that are large compared with the spacing of the second phase. The identified design aspects provide guidance in designing tensile ductility into metallic glasses.

We investigate the influence of various critical structural aspects such as pore density, distribution, size and number on the deformation behavior of nanoporous Cu64 Zr36 glass. By using molecular dynamics and finite element simulations an effective strategy to control the strain localization in nanoporous heterostructures is provided. Depending on the pore distribution in the heterostructure, upon tensile loading the nanoporous glass showed a clear transition from a catastrophic fracture to localized deformation in one dominant shear band, and ultimately to homogeneous plastic flow mediated by a pattern of multiple shear bands. The change in the fracture mechanism from a shear band slip to necking-like homogeneous flow is quantitative interpreted by calculating the critical shear band length. Finally, we identify the most effective heterostructure with enhanced ductility as compared to the monolithic bulk metallic glass. The heterostructure with a fraction of pores of about 3% distributed in such a way that the pores do not align along the maximum shear stress direction shows higher plasticity while retaining almost the same strength as the monolithic glass. Our results provide clear evidence that the mechanical properties of nanoporous glassy materials can be tailored by carefully controlling the design parameters

The large plasticity observed in newly developed monolithic bulk metallic glasses under quasi-static compression raises a question about the contribution of atomic scale effects. Here, nanocrystals on the order of 1–1.5 nm in size are observed within an Fe-based bulk metallic glass using aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The accumulation of nanocrystals is linked to the presence of hard and soft zones, which is connected to the micro-scale hardness and elastic modulus confirmed by nanoindentation. Furthermore, we performed systematic simulations of HRTEM images at varying sample thicknesses, and established a theoretical model for the estimation of the shear transformation zone size. The findings suggest that the main mechanism behind the formation of softer regions are the homogenously dispersed nanocrystals, which are responsible for the start and stop mechanism of shear transformation zones and hence, play a key role in the enhancement of mechanical properties.

A blow molding method based on thermoplastic forming of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) is used to fabricate 3-D microshells. The 3-D microshells are attached to the Si wafer through mechanical locking, which is achieved in the same processing step. Versatile sizes and shapes of the 3-D shells can be precisely controlled. High strength ( >; 1 GPa), elasticity (~ 2%), and controlled surface roughness (<; 2 nm), which are achievable for BMGs, suggest their potential use in devices, including resonators, microlenses, microfluidic, and packaging.