title: Electron-beam-induced elastic-plastic transition in Si nanowires.
abstract: It is generally accepted that silicon nanowires (Si NWs) exhibit linear elastic behavior until fracture without any appreciable plastic deformation. However, the plasticity of Si NWs can be triggered under low strain rate inside the transmission electron microscope (TEM). In this report, two in situ TEM experiments were conducted to investigate the electron-beam (e-beam) effect on the plasticity of Si NWs. An e-beam illuminating with a low current intensity would result in the bond re-forming processes, achieving the plastic deformation with a bent strain over 40% in Si NWs near the room temperature. In addition, an effective method was proposed to shape the Si NWs, where an e-beam-induced elastic-plastic (E-P) transition took place.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Center for Electron Microscopy, The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Jiong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu