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Yielding transition in stable glasses periodically deformed at finite temperature
The effect of glass stability on the yielding transition and
mechanical properties of periodically deformed binary glasses is
investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. We consider a
binary mixture first slowly cooled below the glass transition
temperature and then mechanically annealed to deeper energy states
via small-amplitude oscillatory shear deformation. We show that upon
increasing glass stability, the shear modulus and the yielding peak
during startup continuous deformation increase towards plateau
levels. It is found that during the strain amplitude sweep, the
yielding transition occurs at higher amplitudes and it becomes more
abrupt in deeply annealed glasses. The processes of initiation and
formation of a shear band are elucidated via the spatiotemporal
analysis of nonaffine displacements of atoms. These results are
important for thermo-mechanical processing of highly stable
amorphous alloys.