# Correlations of non-affine displacements in metallic glasses through the yield transition

## TL;DR

This study investigates how non-affine displacements in metallic glasses correlate during shear deformation, revealing a shear transformation zone size in the elastic regime and a diverging length scale during shear band formation, supporting a phase transition perspective.

## Contribution

It provides molecular dynamics evidence linking correlation lengths of displacements to shear transformation zones and shear band development in metallic glasses.

## Key findings

- Correlation length in elastic regime matches shear transformation zone size
- Correlation length becomes system-size dependent after yield
- Supports yield as a first-order phase transition

## Abstract

We study correlations of non-affine displacement during simple shear deformation of Cu-Zr bulk metallic glasses in molecular dynamics calculations. In the elastic regime, our calculations show exponential correlation with a decay length that we interpret as the size of a shear transformation zone in the elastic regime. This correlation length becomes system-size dependent beyond the yield transition as our calculation develops a shear band, indicative of a diverging length scale. We interpret these observations in the context of a recent proposition of yield as a first-order phase transition.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1903.03333