Species Content Effect on the Rejuvenation Degree of CuZr Metallic Glasses Under Thermal-Pressure Treatments

Rejuvenation is a process devoted to the structural excitation of metallic glasses (MGs), ultimately leading to enhanced plasticity. In this work, thermal-pressure treatments were performed on Cu\(_{100-x}\)Zr\(_{x}\) MGs using molecular dynamics simulations and the rejuvenation degree was explored by means of compression tests and structural characterization. MGs with high Zr content presented increased rejuvenation than their Cu-rich counterparts. This behavior is attributed to the large populations of liquid-like polyhedra promoted by high contents of Zr species, which favor the deformation and re-arrangement process of the more centrosymmetric polyhedra during rejuvenation. Overall, our results indicate that thermal-pressure treatments are more effective at larger contents of Zr atoms, offering new insights in the fabrication of MGs with tailored properties.