Results of the investigation of the point-defect manifestation in the recovery kinetics of bulk metallic glasses irradiated with 2.5MeV electrons at 80K were presented. Observation of the pronounced annealing stages at 155, 130 and 225K showed that irradiation generated stable point defects in bulk-metallic glasses. Ultrasonic vibrations of various amplitudes were used to investigate their effects upon the cluster boundaries. The Kaiser effect was chosen as a tool for examining the boundary-slip initiation and impact of vibrations upon the intercluster-boundary structure. Both the acoustic-emission activity and strength decrease due to the specimen pre-treatment by ultrasonic vibration. This effect was interpreted as a result of boundary softening under the ultrasonic vibration. The inherent tensile strength of a Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 bulk-metallic glass (at%) in the as-cast state was determined by means of high-field mechanical loading using the field-ion microscopy. It was revealed that the strength was characterized by a strong size effect in a nanometer-scale range as a result of the manifestation of the structural nano-heterogeneities and, in part, the existence of the cluster boundaries.

Defects and Plastic-Deformation Modes of Bulk-Metallic Glasses. Y.Petrusenko, A.Bakai, I.Neklyudov, I.Mikhailovskij, S.Bakai, P.K.Liaw, L.Huang, T.Zhang: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2011, 42[6], 1511-5