Recoverable plasticity in penta-twinned metallic nanowires governed by dislocation nucleation and retraction

Qingquan Qin, Sheng Yin, Guangming Cheng, Xiaoyan Li, Tzu-Hsuan Chang, Gunther Richter, Yong Zhu () and Huajian Gao ()
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Qingquan Qin: North Carolina State University
Sheng Yin: School of Engineering, Brown University
Guangming Cheng: North Carolina State University
Xiaoyan Li: Centre of Advanced Mechanics and Materials, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Tsinghua University
Tzu-Hsuan Chang: North Carolina State University
Gunther Richter: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Yong Zhu: North Carolina State University
Huajian Gao: School of Engineering, Brown University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract There has been relatively little study on time-dependent mechanical properties of nanowires, in spite of their importance for the design, fabrication and operation of nanoscale devices. Here we report a dislocation-mediated, time-dependent and fully reversible plastic behaviour in penta-twinned silver nanowires. In situ tensile experiments inside scanning and transmission electron microscopes show that penta-twinned silver nanowires undergo stress relaxation on loading and complete plastic strain recovery on unloading, while the same experiments on single-crystalline silver nanowires do not exhibit such a behaviour. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the observed behaviour in penta-twinned nanowires originates from the surface nucleation, propagation and retraction of partial dislocations. More specifically, vacancies reduce dislocation nucleation barrier, facilitating stress relaxation, while the twin boundaries and their intrinsic stress field promote retraction of partial dislocations, resulting in full strain recovery.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6983

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