Patent ID: 8317949

Claim:
A method of forming a ductile metallic material comprising: providing a glass forming iron based metallic alloy comprising 45 to 70 at % iron, nickel and cobalt both being present with a total amount of nickel and cobalt in the range of 7 at % to 50 at %, and boron, carbon and silicon each being present with a total amount of boron, carbon and silicon in the range of 8.3 at % to 35 at %, wherein said atomic percents are selected to provide at least 95 atomic percent for a given alloy; melting said glass forming iron based metallic alloy; and forming said glass forming alloy and cooling said alloy at a rate of about 10 2 to 10 6 K/s forming a material comprising a mixed structure of metallic glass and a nanocrystalline material having a mean grain size of 1 nm to 500 nm; wherein said material exhibits a strain of greater than 0.5%, a failure strength in the range of 1 GPa to 5.9 GPa and a Vickers hardness (HV300) of 9 GPa to 15 GPa.