Uniqueness of glasses prepared via x-ray induced yielding

The yield point marks the beginning of plastic deformation for a solid subjected to sufficient stress, but it can alternatively be reached by x-ray irradiation. We characterize this latter route in terms of thermodynamics, structure and dynamics for a series of GeSe₃chalcogenide glasses with different amount of disorder. We show that a sufficiently long irradiation at room temperature results in a stationary and unique yielding state, independent of the initial state of the glass. The glass at yield is more disordered and has higher enthalpy than the annealed glass, but its properties are not extreme: they rather match those of a glass instantaneously quenched from a temperature 20% higher than the glass-transition temperature. This is a well-known, key temperature for glass-forming liquids which marks the location of a dynamical transition, and it is remarkable that different glasses upon irradiation head all there.