Comment on 'Homogeneity of Zr_(64.13)Cu_(15.75)Ni_(10.12)Al_(10) bulk metallic glass,' by L-Y. Chen, Y-W. Zeng, Q-P. Cao, B-J. Park, Y-M. Chen, K. Hono, U. Vainio, Z-L. Zhang, U. Kaiser, X-D. Wang, and J-Z. Jiang [J. Mater. Res. 24, 3116 (2009)]

摘要

In a recent work, Chen et al. [L-Y. Chen et al., J. Mater. Res. 24, 3116 (2009)] presented microstructural observation on a plastic Zr_(64.13)Cu_(15.75)Ni-(10.12)Al_(10) bulk metallic glass (BMG) reported in Liu et al. [Y.H. Liu et al., Science 315, 1385 (2007)] by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and anomalous small-angle x-ray scattering experiments. Based on their observation, they draw a conclusion that there are no micrometer-sized or nanometer-sized structural heterogeneities in the BMG, and the large plasticity of the BMG cannot be ascribed to the structural heterogeneities. In this comment, we show that their assessment and analysis of their observation are problematic, and it is not evident and precise to use their observation to claim that the BMG is homogeneous and the structural heterogeneity in the glass is an artifact.