The effects of hydrogen doping on energy state of shear bands in a Zr-Based metallic glass

Abstract

In this work, the role of the hydrogenation process on the energy state of shear bands and plastic deformation of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) was studied. For this purpose, the compression loading and the atomic force microscopy (AFM) tests were carried out. The results indicated that the minor addition of hydrogen changed the morphology of shear bands on the side of the loaded sample. Moreover, the population of shear bands increased in the structure, leading to higher plastic deformation in the hydrogen-induced sample. The characterization of shear bands also showed that the fluctuation of energy dissipation at the shear core was intensified in the hydrogenated sample; while the shear affected zone was wider in the hydrogen-free sample. On the other side, the evaluation of serrations in the stress-strain curves exhibited that the hydrogenated sample included the shear events with lower dissipated energy, implying the formation of finer shear bands in the material.