β-relaxation anomaly with low modulus and enhanced recoverable strain in strain glasses crossover

The β-relaxation phenomenon in glasses has shown important effects on toughness, ductility, and creep. However, such a β-relaxation has not been reported yet in an important class of glassy materials, ferroic glasses. Here, we report the existence of a β-relaxation anomaly and its physical origin in strain glass systems by combining molecular statics calculation and phase field simulation. The resolved β-relaxation is observed below the strain glass transition temperature at a critical composition accompanied with spontaneous strain glass to normal martensitic phase transformation, and the internal friction for this β-relaxation anomaly fits well with the Arrhenius equation. The superelasticity with β-relaxation has shown low modulus with high recoverable strain over a wide temperature range. Calculated microstructural evolution and the local stress field caused by point defects suggest that the formed percolation-like metastable suppression field under cooling could be the physical origin of the β-relaxation in strain glass systems and is correlated with crystallization.