A universal criterion for plastic yielding of metallic glasses with a (T/Tg) 2/3 temperature dependence.

Room temperature (TR) elastic constants and compressive yield strengths of approximately 30 metallic glasses reveal an average shear limit gammaC=0.0267+/-0.0020, where tauY=gamma CG is the maximum resolved shear stress at yielding, and G the shear modulus. The gammaC values for individual glasses are correlated with t=TR/Tg , and gamma C for a single glass follows the same correlation (vs t=T/Tg). A cooperative shear model, inspired by Frenkel's analysis of the shear strength of solids, is proposed. Using a scaling analysis leads to a universal law tauCT/G=gammaC0-gammaC1(t)2/3 for the flow stress at finite T where gammaC0=(0.036+/-0.002) and gammaC1=(0.016+/-0.002).