Mechanical behaviors of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) including heterogeneous and homogeneous deformation are interpreted by phenomenological shear transformation zones (STZs) model. Currently, information about STZs, i.e. size and density, is only extracted by fitting model equation to the data obtained from macroscopic mechanical tests. This is inadequate since structural features of STZs theory cannot be assessed. Here, we develop anisotropic pair distribution function (PDF) method for directly characterizing mechanical response of deformation defects. Our results reveal the physical picture of deformation defects in BMGs and also provide direct experimental observation of a link between mechanical deformation and intrinsic properties of deformation defects in BMGs.
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