Article Title

Surface dislocation nucleation mediated deformation and ultrahigh strength in sub-10-nm gold nanowires

Authors

Yang Lu, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
Jun Song, Department of Mining & Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B2, Canada
Jian Yu Huang, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
Jun Lou, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA

Keywords

Nanowires, in situ transmission electron microscope (TEM), mechanical characterization, dislocation nucleation, plasticity

Abstract

ABSTRACT The plastic deformation and the ultrahigh strength of metals at the nanoscale have been predicted to be controlled by surface dislocation nucleation. In situ quantitative tensile tests on individual single crystalline ultrathin gold nanowires have been performed and significant load drops observed in stress–strain curves suggest the occurrence of such dislocation nucleation. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) imaging and molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated that plastic deformation was indeed initiated and dominated by surface dislocation nucleation, mediating ultrahigh yield and fracture strength in sub-10-nm gold nanowires.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0177-y

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Yang Lu,Jun Song,Jian Yu Huang,Jun Lou, Surface dislocation nucleation mediated deformation and ultrahigh strength in sub-10-nm gold nanowires. NanoRes.2011, 4(12): 1261–1267