title: Onset of plasticity in gold nanopillar compression.
abstract: On the basis of a series of molecular dynamics simulations of the compressive deformation of <111>-oriented gold nanopillars, we demonstrate that slip nucleates at surface features for which the amplitude of thermal vibrations is a maximum. This leads to a yield stress which can be either a linear or parabolic function of temperature, depending on the strength with which atoms are bound to the surface. Changing the surface structure by removing weakly bound atoms produces a striking rise in yield strength and a change in its temperature dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel. erabkin@tx.technion.ac.il
authors.forename: Eugen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rabkin
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Srolovitz
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D006046:Gold