The breakdown of strength size scaling in spherical nanoindentation and microcompression of metallic glasses

Abstract

It was previously reported that the strength of metallic glasses (MGs) would scale inversely with the size of a sample or a deformation field, commonly known as “smaller-being-stronger”. However, based on the extensive spherical nanoindentation experiments conducted across a variety of MGs, we demonstrate that such strength-size scaling breaks down at a critical indenter tip radius, which is caused by the transition of the yielding mechanism from bulk- to surface-controlled shear band initiation. Our experimental findings also provide an explanation for the unusual strength scattering observed in the micro-compression of MGs.