Disorder enhanced dynamical heterogeneity in strain glass alloys

An open question related to strain-glass (STG) alloys is whether they process similar dynamical behaviors to other glass systems. In the present work, we investigate the reorientation process of martensite domains in both STG and martensitic alloys. Our results show the presence of highly doped point defects can greatly intensify the dynamical heterogeneity and spatiotemporal correlation in ferroelastic or shape memory alloy systems, which are also two main hallmarks of structural glasses. What's more, we find that such dynamic heterogeneity exists in a different range spanning microscopic to mesoscopic scales, indicated by our molecular dynamic simulations and time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau modeling. Dopant atoms induced transient strain networks, i.e. spatial correlated local lattice distortion, is a response for such heterogeneous dynamics. The present study thus solidifies STG as a new state of matter and may provide guidelines for developing new STG alloys.