Carbon Micro-Alloying Promotes Creep Flow via Enhanced Structural Heterogeneity in Fe-Based Amorphous Alloys.

ABSTRACT: Tuning structural heterogeneity in metallic glasses is key to improving their mechanical performance. Here we examine how carbon micro-alloying modulates the relaxation dynamics and creep of Fe-based amorphous ribbons. Increasing carbon content lowers the crystallization temperature, amplifies β-relaxation, and reduces hardness, consistent with enhanced atomic mobility. Nanoindentation creep, fitted with a stretched-exponential model, shows a decreasing exponent with carbon addition, indicating broader relaxation-time distributions and stronger dynamic heterogeneity. Nanoscale force-mapping further reveals a larger fraction of liquid-like regions and pronounced viscoelastic heterogeneity in carbon-rich samples. These changes facilitate the activation of shear-transformation zones an

SUBMITTER: Cao D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12526352 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature