title: Plastic deformation of single nanometer-sized crystals.
abstract: We report in situ electron microscopy observations of the plastic deformation of individual nanometer-sized Au, Pt, W, and Mo crystals. Specifically designed graphitic cages that contract under electron irradiation are used as nanoscopic deformation cells. The correlation with atomistic simulations shows that the observed slow plastic deformation is due to dislocation activity. Our results also provide evidence that the vacancy concentration in a nanoscale system can be smaller than in the bulk material, an effect which has not been studied experimentally before.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of MEMS of Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors.forename: Litao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Arkady V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Krasheninnikov
authors.forename: Tommy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ahlgren
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nordlund
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Banhart