Nanometallic glasses: size reduction brings ductility, surface state drives its extent.

We report tensile experiments on Ni80P20 metallic glass samples fabricated via a templated electroplating process and via focused ion beam milling, which differed only in their surface energy states: Ga-ion-irradiated and as-electroplated. Molecular dynamics simulations on similar Ni80Al20 systems corroborate the experimental results, which suggest that the transition from brittle to ductile behavior is driven by sample size, while the extent of ductility is driven by surface state.