Motivated by recent experiments on metallic glasses, we examine the micromechanisms of strain accommodation including crystallization and void formation during inelastic deformation of glasses by employing molecular statics simulations. Our atomistic simulations with Lennard-Jones-like potentials suggests that a softer short range interaction between atoms favors crystallization. Compressive hydrostatic strain in the presence of a shear strain promotes crystallization whereas a tensile hydrostatic strain is found to induce voids. The deformation subsequent to the onset of crystallization includes partial reamorphization and recrystallization, suggesting important atomistic mechanisms of plastic dissipation in glasses.

• Received 3 June 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.75.024203