title: Approaching the Limits of Strength: Measuring the Uniaxial Compressive Strength of Diamond at Small Scales.
abstract: Diamond ⟨100⟩- and ⟨111⟩-oriented nanopillars were fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) milling from synthetic single crystals and compressed using a larger diameter diamond punch. Uniaxial compressive failure was observed via fracture with a plateau in maximum stress of ∼0.25 TPa, the highest uniaxial strength yet measured. This corresponded to maximum shear stresses that converged toward 75 GPa or ∼ G/7 at small sizes, which are very close to the ultimate theoretical yield stress estimate of G/2π.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Feuerwerkerstrasse 39, Thun CH-3602, Switzerland.|Laboratory for Nanometallurgy, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Feuerwerkerstrasse 39, Thun CH-3602, Switzerland.|Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials, Max-Planck-Institute für Eisenforschung GmbH , Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Rejin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raghavan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Feuerwerkerstrasse 39, Thun CH-3602, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wehrs
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Feuerwerkerstrasse 39, Thun CH-3602, Switzerland.|Electron Microscopy Center, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Yucheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Electron Microscopy Center, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Erni
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Feuerwerkerstrasse 39, Thun CH-3602, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Johann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Michler
keywords: Diamond; carbon; ideal strength; microcompression; nanomechanics; nanopillar