Thermal effects in the shear-transformation-zone theory of amorphous plasticity: comparisons to metallic glass data

We extend our earlier shear-transformation-zone theory of amorphous plasticity to include the effects of thermally assisted molecular rearrangements. This version of our theory is a substantial revision and generalization of conventional theories of flow in noncrystalline solids. As in our earlier work, it predicts a dynamic transition between jammed and flowing states at a yield stress. Below that yield stress, it now describes thermally assisted creep. We show that this theory accounts for the experimentally observed strain-rate dependence of the viscosity of metallic glasses, and that it also captures many of the details of the transient stress-strain behavior of those materials during loading. In particular, it explains the apparent onset of superplasticity at sufficiently high stress as a transition between creep at low stresses and plastic flow near the yield stress. We also argue that there are internal inconsistencies in the conventional theories of these deformation processes, and suggest ways in which further experimentation as well as theoretical analysis may lead to better understanding of a broad range of nonequilibrium phenomena.