title: Statistics of dislocation slip avalanches in nanosized single crystals show tuned critical behavior predicted by a simple mean field model.
abstract: We show that slowly sheared metallic nanocrystals deform via discrete strain bursts (slips), whose size distributions follow power laws with stress-dependent cutoffs. We show for the first time that plasticity reflects tuned criticality, by collapsing the stress-dependent slip-size distributions onto a predicted scaling function. Both power-law exponents and scaling function agree with mean-field theory predictions. Our study of 7 materials and 2 crystal structures, at various deformation rates, stresses, and crystal sizes down to 75 nm, attests to the universal characteristics of plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA.
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsekenis
authors.forename: Ju-Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Molei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Jonathan T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Uhl
authors.forename: Julia R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Greer
authors.forename: Karin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Dahmen