Deformation Mechanisms and Fracture of Ni-Based Metallic Glasses

Abstract

The cracking of materials and fracture surface is of great practical and academic importance. Over the last few years the development of the fractography of crystalline alloys resulted in a useful tool for the prediction or failure analysis. Many attempts have been made to observe cracks using optical microscopy, X-ray topography and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Of these techniques, the resolution of optical microscopy and X-ray topography is too poor. By contrast, the resolution of TEM is high enough for detailed information to be obtained. However, in order to apply TEM observations, a thin foil specimen must be prepared, and it is usually extremely difficult to prepare such a specimen from a pre-selected region containing a crack.

Keywords

• metals
• transmission electron microscopy
• scanning electron microscopy
• fracture
• shear bands