Correlation between Fracture Mechanical and Atom Probe Investigations on Metallic Glass Ribbon

ABSTRACTMetallic glasses have good mechanical and magnetical properties. However they embrittle after annealing and/or low temperature testing. In this paper, we describe the rupture of atom probe tips using fracture mechanical measurements. We found boron rich areas which seem to be interconnected and more numerous after annealing and act as crack nuclei. The good correlation between the calculated and the measured size of the critical defect seem to confirm that the boron segregations are on the origin of embrittlement and gives good ground for further straightforward investigations.