Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of the notches formed by (a) cutting and (b) indenting respectively. L = 9 nm, R = 3.6 nm, d = 12.6 nm, W = 38.5 nm, W1 = 13.3 nm and W2 = 20.6 nm.

Fig. 2. The engineering stress-strain curves of the monolithic, cut-notched and indent-notched Zr36Cu64 MGs.

Fig. 3. Snapshots of atoms with local shear strain greater than 0.3 at different strains for (a) the monolithic, (b) the cut-notched and (c) the indent-notched MGs.

Fig. 4. The proportions of atoms with local shear strain greater than 0.3 (upper panel) and the transverse shrinkage across the notch plane (down panel) for the MGs at different strains.

Fig. 5. The plastic zone size (D) for the indent-notched and cut-notched MGs as a function of engineering strain. The inserted snapshot shows the plastic zone for the indent-notched and the cut-notched MGs.

Fig. 6. (a) The snapshot of atoms with local shear strain greater than 0.3 at a strain of 7 % for the indent-notched MG, and the indent-notched MG at a strain of 0 % is regarded as the reference state. (b) Atomic displacement vectors (yellow arrows) and local shear strain of the indent-notched MG at a strain of 0 %, and the indent-notched MG before the indentation is regarded as the reference state. The red atomic region is called the indent-notch affected zone (INAZ).

Fig. 7. The average number of quasi-nearest atoms (NQ) for the notched MGs at different strains.

Fig. 8. The engineering stress-strain curves of the indent-notched MGs with the notch depth equaling 4.4, 8.0 and 12.6 nm. The inserts show the snapshots of atoms with local shear strain greater than 0.3 at the strain of 12 % for the indent-notched MGs with different notch depth.

Fig. 9. Schematic description of the competitive relationship between the densely-packed clusters composed of solid atoms in the NAZ and the stress-concentration around the notch root in the dominant role in the initial position of deformation accompanied by the notch depth.