Fig. 3: The energy-strain landscape (ESL) of the metastable state IDs (circled numbers) visited during loading-unloading cycles at different temperatures.
From: Anomalous temperature dependence of elastic limit in metallic glasses
a Quasi-static 0 K limit (loaded up to \({\varepsilon }_{\lim }=0.36\,\%\)) and 2 K (loaded up to \({\varepsilon }_{\lim }=0.19\,\%\)); b 5 K (loaded up to \({\varepsilon }_{\lim }=0.56\,\%\)); c 20 K (loaded up to ε = 0.58%). Vertical gray bars represent the strain energy E(ε) of states as functions of strain ε, and the dark gray horizontal lines show the minimum-energy paths (MEPs) between neighboring states, illustrating the 1D PEL picture at applied strain ε. A reference elastic energy Eref(ε) = 1.5ε2 + E0 is subtracted from the total energy to magnify the energy differences, and E0 is the energy of the system at zero strain. Thick arrows indicate the energy change of the same state with strain during loading/unloading. Thick curves connecting the vertical arrows indicate the one-time transition between neighboring states, while shaded areas represent fully recoverable transitions. The red curves indicate the MEP of the eigen barrier for each shear transformation (ST) event. Three ST events (I, II, III) are involved in these MD simulations, and they experience three types of behavior: irreversible (Type A), hysteresis reversible (Type B), and fully reversible (Type C), marked out on the ESL. The connectivity between states and their types are illustrated at d 0 K limit and 2 K; e 5 K; f 20 K. The spatial extent of ST events I, II, and III are shown in g, h, and i, respectively.
