Nanoscale Creep Behavior and its Size Dependency of a Zr-Based Bulk Metallic Glass Manufactured by Selective Laser Melting

Nanoscale creep behaviors of metallic glasses (MGs) have gathered considerable interests in recent years, owing to the distinct atomistic mechanisms of plasticity. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a burgeoning technique for manufacturing MGs, the nanoscale creep properties and creep mechanism of the AM-ed MGs, however, remain ambiguous. In this work, the nanoscale creep behavior and creep size effect of a selective laser melted (SLM-ed) Zr-based MG were investigated by using nanoindentation. In an effort to gain more insight into the creep behaviors, the creep compliance and creep retardation spectra were extracted. The creep stress exponent (n) and shear transformation zone (STZ) volume, as the indicators of creep mechanism, were estimated. The creep resistance of the MG was found to decrease with the increasing applied peak loads. A potential mechanism for this creep size effect was revealed: the smaller of the STZ volume, as well as the greater ratio of plastic flow under the higher maximum load, are responsible for the decreasing tendency of creep resistance. This work provides an in-depth understanding of the atomistic mechanisms in the AM-ed MG during the nanoscale creep deformation process and is expected to be a reference for improving the plasticity and further engineering applications