1. Structure of metallic glasses and origin of plastic deformation

The formation and production methods of metallic glasses are described in detail in [M 50] (see [Doc. N 2 720] ). Among the best-known methods, melt spinning, or wheel quenching, involves forming a ribbon of thickness varying from 10 to 100 micrometers, by continuous deposition of a flow of liquid material on a rotating metal wheel. This technique achieves a cooling rate of around 10 ⁶ K · s ^–1 . There are variants where the alloy is cast between two rotating wheels yielding sheets 500 micrometers thick with cooling rates of several hundred K/s. Alloys with a high glass forming ability (GFA) can be...