title: Exceptional plasticity of silicon nanobridges.
abstract: The plasticity of covalently bonded materials is a subject at the forefront of materials science, bearing on a wide range of technological and fundamental aspects. However, covalent materials fracture in a brittle manner when the deformation exceeds just a few per cent. It is predicted that a macroscopically brittle material like silicon can show nanoscale plasticity. Here we report the exceptional plasticity observed in silicon nanocontacts ('nanobridges') at room temperature using a special experimental setup combining a transmission electron microscope and a microelectromechanical system. When accounting for surface diffusion, we succeeded in elongating the nanocontact into a wire-like structure, with a fivefold increase in volume, up to more than twenty times the original length. Such a large plasticity was caused by the stress-assisted diffusion and the sliding of the intergranular, amorphous-like material among the nanocrystals.
authors.affiliation: University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science, Tokyo, Japan. tadashii@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cleri
authors.forename: Kuniyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kakushima
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: Takaaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyata
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Itamura
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toshiyoshi
authors.forename: Naruo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Collard
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujita