Manhong Zhao

Observation of plastic deformation in freestanding single crystal Au nanowires

Freestanding single crystal nanowires of gold were fabricated from a single grain of pure gold leaf by standard lithographic techniques, with center section of 7μm in length, 250nm in width, and 100nm in thickness. The ends remained anchored to a silicon substrate. The specimens were deflected via nanoindenter until plastic deformation was achieved. Nonlocalized and localized plastic deformations were observed. The resulting force-displacement curves were simulated using continuum single crystal plasticity. A set of material parameters which closely reproduce the experimental results suggests that the initial critical resolved shear stress was as high as 135MPa.