Cavitation-Induced Fracture Causes Nanocorrugations in Brittle Metallic Glasses

Brittle metallic glasses exhibit a unique and intriguing fracture morphology of periodic nanocorrugations whose spacing and amplitude are of the order of tens of nanometers. We show through continuum simulations that they fail by spontaneous and simultaneous cavitation within multiple weak zones arising due to intrinsic atomic density fluctuations ahead of a notch tip. Dynamic crack growth would then occur along curved but narrowly confined shear bands that link the growing cavities. This mechanism involves little dissipation and also explains the formation of nanocorrugations.