Coulomb Explosions in a Metallic Glass Due to the Passage of Fast Heavy Ions?

Bombardment of glassy ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{80}$ ${\mathrm{Si}}_{20}$ below 50 K with ${}_{}{}^{129}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Xe}$ ions of 1.34 MeV/u leads to macroscopically visible anisotropic mass transport. It is shown that this mass transport is dominated by the energy which the projectiles transfer to the electrons of the metallic glass. Such a behavior is entirely unknown for crystalline metals. As an explanation we suggest that Coulomb explosions in the wake of the projectiles lead to a mechanical polarization of the metallic glass which then undergoes plastic flow.