A concordant shift model for flow in bulk metallic glasses

The homogeneous plastic flow in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) must be elucidated by an appropriate atomistic mechanism. It is proposed that a so-called concordant shifting model, based on rearrangements of five-atom subclusters, can describe the plastic strain behaviour of BMGs in a temperature range from room temperature to the supercooled liquid region. To confirm the effectiveness of the atomic concordant shifting model, a comparative investigation between the vacancy/atom model and the concordant shifting model is carried out based on the estimation of the strain rate deduced from two models. Our findings suggest that the atomic concordant shifting model rather than the vacancy/atom exchange model can well predict the large strain rate in the superplasticity of BMGs.