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Earth, home of human beings, is 70% water and 30% land which has nurtured splendid civilizations and flourishing lives. The cover story of this issue reflects the evolution of Earth by merging an unknown planet in a unified scene with different landscapes throughout the history such as glacier, desert, ocean, mountain, river and magma. The contrast between the past to reality can best illustrate our respect to our motherland. It is not only the subjects of geoscience studies, but also the common goal of all multidisciplinary research and the shared duties of mankind to understand, care and protect our planet to build a better future. |
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Position: Home > issue > May 28, 2021 Volume 2, Issue 2 |
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Unusually Thick Shear-softening Surface of Micrometer-size Metallic Glasses |
Category: Report Download: PDF Figure Endnote |
Author: J. Dong, Y. Huan, B. Huang, J. Yi, Y.H. Liu, B.A. Sun, W.H. Wang, H.Y. Bai |
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Graphical abstract
The surface of glass is crucial for understanding many fundamental processes in glassy solids. A common notion is that a glass surface is a thin layer with liquid-like atomic dynamics and a thickness of a few tens of nanometers. Here, we measured the shear modulus at the surface of both millimeter-size and micrometer-size metallic glasses (MGs) through high-sensitivity torsion techniques. We found a pronounced shear-modulus softening at the surface of MGs. Compared with the bulk, the maximum decrease in the surface shear modulus (G) for the micro-scale MGs reaches ~27%, which is close to the decrease in the G upon glass transition, yet it still behaves solid-like.

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