Enhanced plasticity of bulk amorphous alloys at cryogenic temperature

We investigated the cryogenic temperature plasticity of a bulk amorphous alloy. Experiments showed that as temperature decreases, the plasticity of the alloy increases, such that the alloy exhibited ~20% of plastic strain when tested at -196°C. This enhancement in the plasticity at cryogenic temperatures was associated with the formation of abundant shear bands distributed uniformly over the entire surface of the sample. Nonetheless, the serrations, the characteristic feature of the plastic deformation of amorphous alloys, were unclear at -196°C. In this study, both the enhanced plasticity and the unclear serrations exhibited by the amorphous alloy at cryogenic temperatures were clarified by exploring shear banding behaviors in the context of the velocity and the viscosity of a propagating shear band.