Fatigue deformation of microsized metallic glasses

Metallic glasses typically exhibit high strength and a high elastic limit but suffer from poor fatigue resistance. This work demonstrates that 1.6 micron diameter Zr-based metallic glass samples subjected to compressive fatigue cycling did not fail after 40 × 10^6 cycles. The fatigue endurance limit was shown to increase to more than 110% of bulk yield strength under compression–compression and up to 90% under bending; those of the same material with macroscopic dimensions are typically at 50% of bulk yield strength.