Yonghai Yue

Electron-beam-assisted superplastic shaping of nanoscale amorphous silica

At room temperature, glasses are known to be brittle and fracture upon deformation. Zheng et al. show that, by exposing amorphous silica nanostructures to a low-intensity electron beam, it is possible to achieve dramatic shape changes, including a superplastic elongation of 200% for nanowires.

Approaching the Theoretical Elastic Strain Limit in Copper Nanowires

Three sets of uniaxial tensile tests have been performed in situ in transmission electron microscopy/high-resolution electron microscopy on Cu nanowires (NWs) to accurately map out the sample size dependence of elastic strain limit. Atomic-resolution evidence was obtained for an exceedingly large recoverable strain (as much as 7.2%) that can be sustained in the lattice of a single-crystalline Cu NW with a diameter of ∼5.8 nm. This ultrahigh elastic strain is consistent with the predictions from molecular dynamics simulations for nanowires and approaches the ideal elastic limit predicted for Cu by ab initio calculations.

Atomic mechanisms governing the elastic limit and the incipient plasticity of bending Si nanowires.

Individual single-crystalline Si nanowires (NWs) were bent by forming loops or arcs with different radius. Positional-resolved atomic level strain distribution (PRALSD) along both of the radial and axial directions were calculated and mapped directly from the atomic-resolution strained high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) images of the bent Si NWs. For the first time, the neutral-strain axis shifted from the compressive zone to the tensile region was directly demonstrated from the PRALSD along the radial direction. Bending-induced ripple-buckling of the bent Si NW was observed and a significant strain variation along the bending axial direction in the compressive region was revealed. The tensile surface atomic steps and the compressive buckling are the physical origin of the asymmetric tensile-compressive properties of postelastic instabilities and the incipient plasticity. Both of the tensile surface atomic-steps and the compressive buckling initiated versatile ductile plastic dislocation events.

Crystalline Liquid and Rubber-Like Behavior in Cu Nanowires

Via in situ TEM tensile tests on single crystalline copper nanowires with an advanced tensile device, we report here a crystalline-liquid-rubber-like (CRYS-LIQUE-R) behavior in fracturing crystalline metallic nanowires. A retractable strain of the fractured crystalline Cu nanowires can approach over 35%. This astonishing CRYS-LIQUE-R behavior of the fracturing highly strained single crystalline Cu nanowires originates from an instant release of the stored ultralarge elastic energy in the crystalline nanowires. The release of the ultralarge elastic energy was estimated to generate a huge reverse stress as high as ~10 GPa. The effective diffusion coefficient (D(eff)) increased sharply due to the consequent pressure gradient. In addition, due to the release of ultrahigh elastic energy, the estimated concomitant temperature increase was estimated as high as 0.6 Tm (Tm is the melting point of nanocrystalline Cu) on the fractured tip of the nanowires. These factors greatly enhanced the atomic diffusion process. Molecular dynamic simulations revealed that the very high reverse stress triggered dislocation nucleation and exhaustion.