Abstract Structural heterogeneity has been proposed as a key intrinsic feature and mechanism underline unique properties and dynamic behavior of metallic glasses; however, it is still challenging in precisely describing and effectively characterizing the atomic-scale heterogeneity in metallic glasses. In this work, we employed the Meissner effect of superconductivity in magnetic susceptibility measurements as a sensitive bulk probe and successfully revealed the three-dimensional structural heterogeneity and its two-way evolution tuned by structural aging or rejuvenation in a La-based metallic glass. Compared with the resistivity measurements which only signal the most superconductive loop in inhomogeneous materials, the diamagnetic susceptibility signal of the Meissner effect maps the volumetric distribution of all superconductive regions and the corresponding structural heterogeneity in metallic glasses with high sensitivity. The experimental results reported in this article can be well interpreted based on a structural model of tunable “soft liquid-like” regions with soft vibration modes mixed with “hard solid-like” regions, validating the heterogeneity models of metallic glasses with new experimental data and approach.

中文翻译：

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迈斯纳效应探测金属玻璃的体本征非均质性

摘要 结构异质性被认为是金属玻璃独特性质和动态行为的关键内在特征和机制；然而，精确描述和有效表征金属玻璃中的原子级异质性仍然具有挑战性。在这项工作中，我们将超导性在磁化率测量中的迈斯纳效应用作灵敏的体探针，并成功揭示了 La 基金属玻璃中的三维结构异质性及其通过结构老化或再生调整的双向演化。与电阻率测量值相比，电阻率测量值仅表示非均质材料中最强的超导回路，迈斯纳效应的抗磁化率信号以高灵敏度绘制了所有超导区域的体积分布和金属玻璃中相应的结构异质性。本文报道的实验结果可以很好地解释基于可调“软液体状”区域与软振动模式混合“硬固体状”区域的结构模型，用新的实验数据验证金属玻璃的异质性模型和方法。