Room temperature activated slow β relaxation and large compressive plasticity in a LaCe-based bulk metallic glass

Activation of the beta relaxation of metallic glasses is usually related to the activation of the structure units which correlates with the activation of shear transformation zones. In the present work, a pronounced slow beta relaxation behavior was observed around ambient temperature in (La25Ce75)(65)Al11Co24 metallic glass. Based on the compression tests at 223 K and 300 K, the results demonstrated that compression achieves large compressive plasticity with true plastic strain over 160% at room temperature, while the compressive plastic strain less than 1% at 223 K. From the perspective of structural heterogeneity, the (La25Ce75)(65)Al11Co24 metallic glass provides a model alloy to probe the mechanisms of deformation at room temperature induced shear transition behaviors.