Characterization Of Mechanical Heterogeneity In Amorphous Solids

The structural geometry and size distribution of the local atomic rearrangements induced by external stress in amorphous solids are investigated by molecular dynamics studies. We find that the size distribution exhibits a generic power-law behavior and their structural geometry shows fractal feature. This indicates that the local atomic rearrangements in amorphous solids are self-organized during deformation. A simple theoretical model based on the interaction of the heterogeneous elastic field sources is proposed which predicts the power-law scaling and characterizes the properties of the local atomic rearrangements in amorphous solids. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4739260]