Probing the evolution of slow flow dynamics in metallic glasses

Abstract

The dynamics of glass is of paramount importance for understanding glass, while experimental studies of it covering broad time and temperature ranges are fraught with difficulty. We employ a method which can probe the extremely slow dynamics in various glassy states in metallic glass (MG). The flow dynamics of as-cast MG is found to follow a universal Arrhenius behavior in a wide temperature range, and aged MG follows a stretched exponential function with a ``magic'' exponent number of 3/7. Our observations have implications for understanding the structural evolution of the slow flow and the issue of finite temperature divergence in MGs.