Abstract

Rejuvenation is a process devoted to the structural excitation of metallic glasses (MGs), ultimately leading to enhanced plasticity. In this work, thermal-pressure treatments were performed on Cu100-xZrx MGs using molecular dynamics simulations and the rejuvenation degree was explored by means of compression tests and structural characterization. MGs with high Zr content presented increased rejuvenation than their Cu-rich counterparts. This behavior is attributed to the large populations of liquid-like polyhedra promoted by high contents of Zr species, which favor the deformation and re-arrangement process of the more centrosymmetric polyhedra during rejuvenation. Overall, our results indicate that thermal-pressure treatments are more effective at larger contents of Zr atoms, offering new insights in the fabrication of MGs with tailored properties.