Reply to the comments of Y.H. Liu: Ion sputter erosion in metallic glass—A response to “Comment on: Homogeneity of Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 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)]

The morphology of the dark and bright regions observed by transmission electron microscopy for the Zr64.13Cu15.75Ni10.12Al10 bulk metallic glass strongly depends on the ion beam parameters used for ion milling. This indicates that the ion beam could introduce surface fluctuation to metallic glasses during ion milling.