Study of the irradiation resistance and self-healing mechanism in Ti-based high-entropy metallic glass

• Disordered Structure Advantage: The amorphous atomic arrangement in metallic glass (MG) creates irregular diffusion pathways, blocking He + ion migration and incubation, therefore, enhancing the radiation resistance. • Self-Healing under Irradiation: Recurrent thermal spikes promote atomic rearrangement, reducing surface roughness and improving structural recovery at high doses. • Radiation Resistance Mechanism: Demonstrating the irradiation hardening/softening is governed by free volume dynamics and topological order–disorder transitions. • Advanced In-Situ Synchrotron Technique Insights: Heating/annealing experiments show the structure evolution under heat accumulation, suggesting the increased disorder further suppresses He bubble nucleation. Disordered atomic arrangements in metallic glasses (MGs) can generate irregular diffusion paths and increase the diffusion distance of high-energy ions during irradiation, obstructing the diffusion channel of irradiated particles, slowing their migration, and considerably enhancing radiation resistance. A compound TiVZrNbTaMoB MG is bombarded by 500 keV He ions in the current study. In SRIM simulations, electron energy loss dominates the system’s energy loss during 500 keV He ion irradiation, indicating considerable thermal effects. As irradiation dosage rises, especially at high doses, system disorder and atomic arrangement compactness increase. Recurrent thermal peaks improve the alloy’s self-healing at high irradiation doses, reducing surface roughness. Hardness and modulus grow and fall with irradiation doses. Irradiation damage leaves the MG amorphous with homogeneous compositional distribution, no segregation, and no helium bubbles. In-situ heating and annealing in a high-energy synchrotron source show that the MG has a decreased free volume and a considerable medium-range atomic rearrangement under continuous thermal impact. The level of structural disorder increased, which continued to prevent helium bubble production and strengthened the MG’s radiation resistance. MG’s irradiation hardening and softening depend on free volume and topological order–disorder. Our findings practically implicate that the MG is resistant to the irradiation degradation.